DENVER — Phoenix Suns aren’t blaming altitude or being on the road for losing Game 1 to Denver Nuggets in such a lopsided fashion, 125-107, Saturday at Ball Arena.
The Suns trailed by as many as 25 points.
“This is playoff basketball,” Suns big Deandre Ayton said. “You get back home, get your ass kicked and you figure it out.”
The fourth-seeded Suns took Sunday to work on adjustments going into Monday’s Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals series against the No. 1 seeded Nuggets..
“I always believe in us,” Suns three-time All-Star Devin Booker said. “We’ve been a good team all year of digesting the game and seeing what went on and learning from it and making those corrections.”
The Suns always talk about going back “into the lab” to fix what went wrong.
It starts with giving credit where credit is due.
‘They beat us’
“First of all, you can sit here and make excuses about what we didn’t do, but they beat us,” Suns coach Monty Williams said after Sunday’s practice. “That’s something that you have to address right away.”
The Suns have preached playing with pace and tempo, but they failed to do so in Game 1.
“We’ve got to play faster, that’s on me, especially early in the game,” Suns point guard Chris Paul said after Game 1. “We’ve just got to pick up the pace.”
Playing goes beyond pushing the ball up the court.
It also involved making quick decisions when reading the defense. The Suns look to improve on that in Game 2 as the offense was stagnant at times in Game 1.
“Sometimes we can play a little faster and make quick decisions,” Suns superstar Kevin Durant said after Sunday’s practice. “Those milliseconds matter in the NBA. Those small angles close up quick.”
Diagnosing Denver’s defense on the fly is paramount in playing faster for the Suns.
“We’ve always been really good at making the right read right away,” Williams said Sunday. “I thought we were delayed and hesitant in that. I think we’ll do a lot better tomorrow.”
‘One person to guard two people’
Having proper spacing will not only help Phoenix execute offensively, but force Denver’s defense to make defensive adjustments.
The Suns have a play in which Durant and Booker are on the same side with Paul running pick-and roll with Ayton.
With Ayton diving, it forces the defense to either defend Booker, Durant, the lob threat or Paul. Durant or Booker have been open for 3 on this play.
“I feel like our spacing at times wasn’t the best,” Suns wing Josh Okogie said after Sunday’s practice. “It allowed one person to guard two people. They really didn’t have to do too much rotating. If we can get our spacing right to put a lot of pressure on that backside guy to either pick a side, that’ll be better.”
Regardless of how fast the Suns want to play, that all begins with getting defensive stops and rebounding and Phoenix failed in both areas Saturday night.
The Nuggets outrebounded Phoenix, 49-38, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds with Nikola Jokic grabbing eight that greatly contributed to them attempting 101 shots.
“Defend and rebound’
As a team, the Suns had eight offensive rebounds and 84 field goal attempts.
“That’s how you win championships is to defend and rebound the basketball,” said Durant after Game 1.
That’s coming from a two-time NBA champion and back-to-back finals MVP who led the Suns on the glass with 14, seven more than Ayton.
“We’ve all got to be better in that area,” Durant said. “I think I can do even more to be honest.”
Ayton didn’t play with the level of force necessary to combat Denver’s physicality and aggression. An uptick in that area will do wonders for Phoenix in Game 2.
“He would tell you it wasn’t where it needs to be,” Williams said Sunday. “When you look at the film, it wasn’t as consistent. When he plays with force, the table is set if you will. He would probably say he could ratchet it up three or four levels, but I think the whole team feels that way. We all have a bit of personal disappointment.”
‘That’s not DA’
Williams later said that Ayton didn’t crash the offensive boards to the level he usually does.
“His crash rate was really low,” Williams said. “His crash rate is usually 60s, even 70%. His was much lower. I think it was the lowest. That’s not DA. DA is a high-level basketball player. A lot of it with him, when he plays with that aggression and force, it actually energizes the team.”
Denver shot 16-of-37 from 3 in Game 1 with Jamal Murray knocking down six of his 10 launches.
Murray finished with 34 points, going 4-of-6 from 3 in the second half, but he came into the series averaging 27.2 points and 27.2 points and shooting 42.9% from 3.
“When Jamal Murray is fully healthy, locked, and loaded, we know what he is capable of and it is just so fun to watch him perform at the level he’s performing at,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone as Murray missed the 2021 conference semifinals Phoenix swept Denver and the entire 2021-22 season.
Williams started Josh Okogie in large part to guard Murray, but he still had a huge night as the Nuggets guard scored 20 in the second half.
“Some of the shots he hit, I don’t think anybody could’ve stopped him, but we’ve got to do something a little bit different in our schemes to keep from getting the ball or get the ball out of his hands,” Williams said.
‘It falls on me’
Okogie took personal responsibility for Murray’s performance even though Landry Shamet spent time defending the Nuggets guard, too.
“I feel like it falls on me,” Okogie said. “I was the first person guarding him. I didn’t put enough pressure on him.”
Murray and Jokic worked pick-and-roll magic that Phoenix didn’t handle due to not being on the same page to defend it.
“I felt like we weren’t communicating, especially when Murray was coming off those screens,” Ayton said. “We were a little iffy. We weren’t on solid ground. He made a few and we changed it up a little bit after he made a few coming off those picks. Things like that, we can’t get discouraged.”
Along with Murray’s 34-point blast, Jokic scored 24 points to go along with a game-high 19 rebounds and Aaron Gordon punched in 23 points.
“As a team, we can’t let everybody be eating like that,” Ayton said.
“It’s all on the table’
The Suns could also utilize Cameron Payne as he plays with a faster pace.
The backup point guard returned Game 5 of the Clippers series from a low back injury that sidelined him five games, but he didn’t play Saturday until the last 5:09 of Game 1 when Williams took out the starters.
“It’s all on the table,” Williams said after Game 1. “He may find himself in the rotation just to create some more pace so Book doesn’t have to handle the ball all the time. We’re going to look at that.”
Ayton added the Suns played “too slow” against Denver.
“It wasn’t Suns basketball,” Ayton continued. “Not only that, we’re trying to run the offense after a made basket. Usually, we set the tone on defense and we get out and run like they did against us. It’s going to be a completely different team next game.”
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns making corrections, adjustments going into Game 2 versus Nuggets
