PHOENIX - The Suns still have a long way to go on the defensive end, but Friday night at Mortgage Matchup Center at least showed a team that fought back.
Phoenix dropped its NBA Cup opener 127-120 to the Denver Nuggets, falling to 1-3 on the season, and the loss came with the same ugly headline that has followed the Suns all week: the defense is still leaking points at a brutal rate. Denver’s 127 was a season high against Phoenix, and the Suns have now given up 122 or more in all four games.
That said, this one looked different than the first three.
The Suns brought more energy, more resistance and more life, even if the final result never fully swung their way. Oso Ighodaro returned from an oblique strain, and Phoenix played with more intensity from the start. The effort showed up in the margins: the Suns outrebounded Denver 42-41, matched the Nuggets’ physicality better, turned 19 Denver turnovers into opportunities and posted a season-high 34 assists.
Still, the defense couldn’t hold up against a Denver team that kept making shots. Jamal Murray scored 39 points, Christian Braun added 31, and both players hit 7 of 9 from 3-point range. As a team, the Nuggets knocked down 52.6% of their 3s.
Phoenix coach Jordan Ott pointed to stretches where his team’s effort was there and stretches where the execution slipped.
"I think at periods it was us. That’s what we just talked about, periods that was our energy, that was our intensity, and then there’s some piece to execution that we need too," Ott said of his team's defense.
"There’s going to be some of those moments where, give them credit. They’ve been a top-five offense for five or six years.
They were number one offense last year.
"They got shot making from a guy that’s made five all year, made seven, I believe that’s a career high, I would guess. So, we were trying to take it out of (Nikola) Jokic’s hands at times.
The ball found him especially in the first half, Braun, and he made them. So, credit there.
But at times it felt like us, that’s why this one feels a little different.
"We haven’t just stressed defense for three days; we stressed it a little longer than that. So, continue to go back, keep adding layers to it, which we’re further ahead because it is year two. We’ll keep piling on and piling on our guys to see where we can take this thing.”
The Suns’ improved fight was obvious in the fourth quarter, even though the comeback never fully materialized. Miles Bridges delivered his best game so far with 24 points and 10 rebounds, and the bench gave Phoenix a lift behind Collin Gillespie’s 16 points and 10 assists.
Gillespie also helped stabilize the backcourt late, as the Suns went with him next to Devin Booker instead of Jalen Green down the stretch. Booker finished with 20 points on 7-for-19 shooting and five assists on his 30th birthday, while Green had just two points on 1-of-6 shooting in 25 minutes.
That decision could become a bigger talking point if Phoenix keeps leaning into the idea that Gillespie’s shooting and playmaking fit more naturally with the rest of the starting group. Green hasn’t been bad overall, but Friday’s game was a rough one, and Gillespie’s skill set may balance the lineup better while Green settles into a different role.
For now, the Suns sound willing to give the starting group more time to sort itself out. They also made clear they’re not turning on Green after one quiet night.
"There's 82 games in a season. Sometimes you're gonna have quiet nights.
Sometimes you're gonna have off nights. But yeah, obviously, everybody has unbelievable confidence in JG, and we support him," Gillespie said.
"Just tell him to go out there, continue to play, continue to take his shots, continue to play hard. And his energy is infectious, like we can feel it.
When he's going, the crowd can feel it, we can pick up off of that, so just trying to tell him to continue to keep going. Obviously, when Dillon (Brooks was ejected), I was like, 'Yo, this is going to flip for you at some point really soon.
Continue to just put pressure on the defense, and then if your shot's not falling, just do other stuff,' which he normally does really well.'"
"He's been so good to start the season in terms of like his approach to every day. So we're riding with JG 100 times out of 100 times, and next game he could go out there, and he's liable to put up 30 every night.
So we're just keeping his spirits high. My first game.
I was 0-for-8. Nobody's.
It's just how the season goes. Sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn't.
But continue to trust your work, and teammates will pick you up, so we got a ton of confidence in JG."
The bigger issue remains the same one the Suns walked into the night trying to fix: the defense. Phoenix entered with the league’s worst defensive rating, and that number only got worse after Denver’s barrage. The Suns now sit at 125.8, still last in the NBA by more than four points.
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