The Phoenix Suns appeared well on their way to a sixth straight win Sunday, Nov. 16.

Phoenix was up 22 points with under 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter and the sellout crowd of 17,071 was rocking at Mortgage Matchup Center.

Atlanta was on the final stop of a four-game road trip, still without All-Star guard Trae Young (knee).

The Suns had all the momentum to cruise to victory, while Atlanta could’ve just called it a day and started thinking about that three-hour flight back home.

Unfortunately for Phoenix, Atlanta didn’t surrender.

The Hawks went on a monstrous run that the Suns helped fuel with mistakes, missed shots and turnovers to pull off a 124-122 stunner and end Phoenix’s five-game winning streak.

Atlanta extended an initial 20-0 run to 33-11 in taking the lead for good, 119-118, with 54.7 seconds left on Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s driving layup.

The Hawks (9-5) outscored the Suns, 47-27, in the fourth quarter to win a fifth consecutive game and improve to 7-2 on the road.

“Game’s never over,” Suns star guard Devin Booker said. “The quicker we can regroup after the commotion of whatever the situation was that happened, the better for the team.”

Dillon Brooks paced Phoenix with a game-high 34 points to mark the first time he’s ever posted consecutive 30-point games in a season. Onyeka Okongwu scored a team-high 27 for the Hawks.

The Suns (8-6) resume play on the road Tuesday, Nov. 18, against the Portland Trail Blazers.

“We’re going to have to find new parts of our rotation because these games don’t stop,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said. “We play in two days. Even though we had two days in between, our guys were feeling it yesterday after 3 games in 4 days.”

The Suns were without Grayson Allen (right quad contusion) and Jalen Green (right hamstring strain), who will be re-evaluated in three to five weeks.

Here are several takeaways from Sunday’s game.

Brooks draws tech, rips referee

The Suns committed five turnovers in the fourth that led to 10 Atlanta points, surrendered 22 points in the paint and had no answers for Nickeil Alexander-Walker. The Hawks guard scored 16 points in playing all of the game’s final 12 minutes.

However, Brooks criticized referee Justin Van Duyne for giving him a technical foul after he took issue with play being stopped following Zaccharie Risacher’s scary fall on a dunk to cut Phoenix’s lead down to 107-94 with 6:52 left in the game. Risacher took a hard landing after swinging upward on the rim from the momentum of racing up the court after stealing the ball from Collin Gillespie.

Brooks called for teammate Mark Williams to inbound the ball. With Risacher clearly shaken up, the Suns looked to score with a 5-on-4 advantage.

They advanced the ball across halfcourt before the officials stopped play as Hawks coach Quin Snyder was on the court looking to tend to his player. Six seconds elapsed between when Risacher went down to when the officials stopped game action.

Devin Booker on play stoppage after Zaccharie Risacher hard fall in 124-122 Suns loss to Hawks: “I hope he’s OK, but the situation is they can’t call that play dead when we have advantage numbers. I’ve never seen it happen before and then give a tech for us calling it out. It’s a… pic.twitter.com/NMwBhFufLJ

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 17, 2025

While Risacher remained down, Brooks addressed the stoppage and Van Duyne hit him with a technical foul. Alexander-Walker hit the technical free throw to make the difference 12.

The Suns were still ahead, but Brooks said this sequence turned the game around and called out Van Duyne by first name in his postgame complaint.

“I saw us playing seven against five,” Brooks said. “Emotional refs. They were making calls out of emotion. Smirking while they were making the calls. That should be reviewed.”

While the Suns fumed, the Hawks continued their 20-0 run with Okongwu and Vit Krejci hitting back-to-back 3s, forcing Ott to call a timeout with 5:36 left and Phoenix’s lead suddenly down to six, 107-101.

The Hawks still trailed, 107-106, after the 20-0 run with 4:34 left, but they were rolling while the Suns were reeling.

All the momentum Phoenix had built in the third quarter was gone.

Life with Brooks

The Suns shot just 10-of-30 from 3 as Booker missed all six of his deep attempts in scoring 27 points on 10-of-23 shooting.

Phoenix turned the ball over 17 times, which led to 29 points and allowed Atlanta to shoot 52.9% from the field.

Booker committed five of those turnovers. The Suns had no answer for Okongwu inside the 3-point line. He shot 6-of-6 outside of his 3-of-9 effort from deep.

However, Ott found himself answering questions about living with everything that comes with the passionate Brooks, who is in his first season in Phoenix.

“That’s part of Dillon Brooks,” Ott said. “That’s why we love him. His energy, especially here at home, every single night, he laces them up to an extreme, competitive level. We feel it. The whole building feels it on nights like tonight. This isn’t his first year. He knows exactly what he’s doing. At times, we rally. We need that energy.”

The Suns don’t build a 22-point lead without Brooks.

He’s made an immediate, positive impact on the Suns. He’s averaging a career-high 22 points. With Green appearing in just two games, Phoenix has needed Brooks’ offense.

Suns coach Jordan Ott when asked by @HaydenCilley about living with the intense side of Dillon Brooks and a technical fouls being a byproduct of it: “That’s part of Dillon Brooks. That’s why we love him. His energy, especially here at home, every single night, he laces them up to… pic.twitter.com/Bu49HJrwJp

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 17, 2025

However, his foul on Alexander-Walker’s 3 with 3:11 left can’t happen. That further fueled Atlanta’s comeback as Alexander-Walker hit the free throw to pull Atlanta within two points.

Brooks isn’t toning it down. The Suns feed off his energy, which means when he’s upset, the team gets upset. It’s going to be a continual adjustment.

Can Suns maintain this style of play?

The Suns play. Oh man, they play really hard.

“We just didn’t close in the 4th quarter.”

Suns guard Collin Gillespie as Atlanta outscored Phoenix, 47-27, in 4th quarter of 124-122 loss to Hawks.

Led by 22 in 4th. #Suns pic.twitter.com/yCyEakNMrf

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 17, 2025

It’s the major difference between last season’s 36-win squad and this year’s team.

Gillespie fought through cramps in both quads to make an incredible save while falling out of bounds, getting the ball to Jordan Goodin for a layup plus the foul late in the third quarter.

The fans haven’t been this loud in a minute. No pumped-in sound needed.

However, Ott basically said after the game the Suns pretty much ran out of gas. He talked about needing a spark in the rotation to help their heavy-minute guys like Booker and Brooks.

The Suns still shouldn’t have lost the game. Up 22 in the fourth, you can’t lose those.

They came into the season looking to establish a new identity of playing hard, aggressive, physical and fast. The Suns achieved that, but Ott may have to either expand his rotation to play more guys, change it or get better play out of the guys in the current rotation.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.