Suns 107, Raptors 102

The Phoenix Suns are averaging 106.2 points on 44.6 percent shooting and allowing 105.2 points on 46.7 percent shooting.

Sometimes, a four-game losing skid tailing into a six-game road trip means trouble. “Every time someone drove, I tried to go behind my defender’s back so they couldn’t see me”. The Raptors fought neck-to-neck in the second quarter to reduce the extent of the lead.

And still the Suns were able to drain 11 threes and win the battle of the paint handily in a 107-102 loss, the Raptors first in five games and on the back end of a back-to-back.

“We kinda stopped them from being the high-scoring backcourt that they are but we can’t let guys come in and get going with those knock-down threes”, DeRozan said. “If we could have just cleaned up half of those 3-pointers and forced them to take different shots, then we easily win this game”.

“Doing the dirty work, the gritty work are things we have to do”, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

As has been noted, the trend in the National Basketball Association is for more three point shooting from more positions. “In fact, we shot better from the 3 than they did (12-for-29)”.

The Raptors rallied in the fourth, and looked poised to pull out another victory, and when Joseph launched a three with just under five minutes to play, it pulled the Raptors to within two points.

Trailing by three, the Raptors still had one shot to send this one into overtime with a second left on the clock. Currently, the team averages just shy of 22 attempts per game (21.9) which, if that rate holds, would be good for 1,799 threes for the season.

When allowing 100 or more points in a game, the Suns are just 3-8 this season. “We didn’t play our best defensive game and when you do that you usually get beat”. He added a season-high six blocked shots and five assists, and tied a career high with four steals.

“That’s kind of the trend in the league now”, Casey said. “It was a busted play”. From that point on, it should have been a matter of the Suns making their free throws, but they couldn’t even get that right.

The Nets have been playing decent ball as of late at home, and we can’t say the same with the Suns on the road. “That’s the way teams are playing and I’m trying to get better and that’s an area where I can get better”.

“We have to do it on defence and go out to the three-point line. I thought our defensive effort was better”.

Forward and guard Brandon Knight each scored 16 points for Phoenix and forward T.J. Warren added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 21 points and seven rebounds.

“We used a lot of energy to try and get back into the game”. “We had some bonehead mistakes and I think we really lost that game instead of them beating us”. The Suns’ bench outscored Toronto’s 51-25.

Although it’s still very early in the season, the Phoenix Suns are still looking for their first out-of-conference victory, as they’ve gone 7-7 in Western Conference play and are just 7-9 overall. The Suns also doubled up the Raptors on second-chance points (14-7).

The Suns pulled away by nine points again on a 3-pointer by Knight with 2:56 to play in the third. This puts them in the bottom third in the league in threes attempted (and threes made, incidentally), though the Raps are now ninth in 3-point efficiency. Meanwhile, Jon Leuer broke out his entire offensive arsenal, starting from the 3-point line with a couple of big makes, then moving in with a sweet floater and finally posterizing both Bismack Biyombo and Patrick Patterson on driving dunks for 16 big points. Toronto was on the second game of a back-to-back and looked like it. All it was going to take from Phoenix was sustained effort for 48 minutes.