The good: The Phoenix Suns played possibly their best and most inspired first quarter of the year.
They built a 21-point lead over a shellshocked Houston Rockets team. They outworked, out-thought and outplayed the visitors in every aspect. The energy inside Mortgage Matchup Center was as good as it’s been in the last three seasons.
The bad: Everything that happened after that.
As they have quite regularly recently, the Suns looked positively pedestrian over the next 36 minutes in a telling 119-105 loss to the Rockets.
It was Houston that was the aggressor from the second quarter on. The Rockets turned 24 offensive rebounds into 37 second-chance points, exploiting the Suns’ lack of size and diminished energy. How thorough was Houston’s beatdown on the offensive boards? Even Kevin Durant got one.
What I couldn’t understand was the Suns’ rotation decisions in this game.
The rebounding differential was pronounced, yet head coach Jordan Ott didn’t stray from his pre-determined playing time rotation to get more size on the floor. It’s not like Phoenix has five long, physical 6-foot-10 players hanging on the bench, but for Rasheer Fleming, Ryan Dunn or Khaman Maluach not to take their sweats off until a “we give up” timeout with 64 seconds left in the game was puzzling.
The Suns will need to do work over the final three games to hold on to the No. 7 seed and a home play-in game against the No. 8 seed. But then what? The current construction of this team doesn’t lead to much optimism.
The Suns used effort to stack wins prior to February. But the NBA is a much different animal after the All-Star break when postseason teams actually start trying.
Vince Marotta has been the Phoenix Suns’ PA announcer since 2016 in addition to his duties as co-host of Bickley & Marotta. On weekdays after Suns home games, you can listen to Vinny’s View on Arizona Sports 98.7 at 7 a.m. or read what he saw from the front row at Mortgage Matchup Center here.
