{"id":540679,"date":"2026-01-16T13:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/540679\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:48:21","slug":"phoenix-keeps-swinging-but-late-games-keep-slipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/540679\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix keeps swinging, but late games keep slipping"},"content":{"rendered":"

This road trip has been rough on the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n

Two games in, and both of them felt like street fights dressed up as basketball. Heavy hands. Bodies flying. Tempers flaring. Whistles blowing for technicals like the refs were keeping score themselves. Phoenix went blow-for-blow with Detroit on Thursday night, trading shots and refusing to fold, but once again, they could not stay upright long enough to get a win.<\/p>\n

They went 16 rounds, and the decision felt like a TKO. Over these past two games, the Suns have looked like George Foreman late in a fight. Swinging with everything they had, breathing hard, legs heavy, running on fumes when it mattered most. This is now a second straight game that slipped away in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

You can take some comfort in the context. Devin Booker was out. The identity held. The effort never wavered. But context does not erase the result. Back-to-back losses are back-to-back losses, and this road trip is starting to leave marks.<\/p>\n

Bright Side Baller Season Standings<\/p>\n

Grayson Allen moves into fourth place with his 25-pointer against the Heat on Tuesday. That\u2019s 4 BSB\u2019s in his trophy case this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bright Side Baller Nominees<\/p>\n

Game 41 against the Pistons. Here are your nominees:<\/p>\n

Grayson Allen
33 points (11-of-25, 7-of-20 3PT), 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers, -10 +\/-<\/p>\n

Collin Gillespie
18 points (6-of-10, 4-of-6 3PT), 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 0 blocks, 3 turnovers, 0 +\/-<\/p>\n

Dillon Brooks
16 points (4-of-16, 2-of-6 3PT), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers, -17 +\/-<\/p>\n

Oso Ighodaro
10 points (4-of-8, 0-of-0 3PT), 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 block, 0 turnovers, +8 +\/-<\/p>\n

Royce O\u2019Neale
11 points (4-of-11, 3-of-8 3PT), 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers, -9 +\/-<\/p>\n

Jordan Goodwin
7 points (3-of-8, 0-of-2 3PT), 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, +14 +\/-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This road trip has been rough on the Phoenix Suns. Two games in, and both of them felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,62461,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-540679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bright-side-baller","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-phoenix-suns","13":"tag-phoenixsuns","14":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115905097141339633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}