The Phoenix Suns do a lot of talking about making a sustained postseason run, but their on-court results continue to fall short.
The Suns are on the outside of the Western Conference play-in race with 24 games left as they begin a pivotal two-game home set against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night. The teams play again on Friday in Phoenix.
The Suns were 2 1/2 games behind the Sacramento Kings for 10th place in the West entering Wednesday’s play.
Despite the constant chatter that the club is ready to break out, Phoenix is a meager 2-9 this month and finished a 1-4 road trip with a 151-148 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday.
Memphis star Ja Morant scored the tying basket with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to force the extra session. The Suns blew a four-point lead in overtime as the Grizzlies scored the game’s final seven points.
“We weren’t able to close it out,” Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Credit to them. The guys fought. A lot of good stuff.”
The good stuff included five 20-point outings from Phoenix players for the first time since November 1990.
Devin Booker had 28 points and 10 assists; Kevin Durant recorded 26 points, eight rebounds and seven assists; Bradley Beal had 24 points and 11 assists; Bol Bol registered 23 points and eight rebounds; and Grayson Allen made six 3-pointers while scoring 21 off the bench.
“I still think we had opportunities to win the game,” Booker said. “Makes it hurt that much worse.”
New Orleans is far out of the playoff race but has won three of its past four games, including a two-game home sweep of the San Antonio Spurs.
The Pelicans beat the Spurs 114-96 on Sunday and 109-103 on Tuesday. Newcomer Kelly Olynyk had a combined 20 points and 27 rebounds in the two victories, making a quick impact since being acquired from the Toronto Raptors.
“We like the big lineup so far,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “After many games of not being able to win the rebounding margin, we’re winning that and it’s giving up extra possessions and allowing us get out and play in transition. We’ll continue to explore and Kelly was really good (Tuesday night).”
However, Olynyk will not be suited up Thursday as he will rest on the front end of the back-to-back against Phoenix.
Trey Murphy III scored a game-high 24 points on Tuesday and Zion Williamson added 18.
Williamson was the main force Sunday with 22 points and nine rebounds. Karlo Matkovic had a career-high 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting off the bench.
New Orleans had to dig itself out of big deficits in both games, trailing by 17 points on Sunday and 19 on Tuesday before turning things around.
“We want to get off to better starts but we’ll take the two wins for sure,” Green said.
Murphy was able to see the difference on Tuesday.
“We got stops and got into transition,” Murphy said. “We changed the energy and the pace of the game.”
The Pelicans defeated the Suns 126-124 on Dec. 5 in New Orleans behind 29 points from since-departed Brandon Ingram with CJ McCollum adding 25. Booker had 28 points and Beal had 24 for Phoenix, which played without Durant.
–Field Level Media
