Washington Wizards guard Raul Neto, 19, moves to the basket past Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges (25) and guard Devin Booker (1) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, January 11, 2021, in Washington. Wizarding Center Robin Lopez (15) watches. (AP Photo / Nick Wass)
The Phoenix Suns would eventually get burned for their offensive incapacity, especially in the early games.
It burned them in Friday’s loss to the very bad Detroit Pistons, and it burned them again in Monday’s defeat at 128-107 by the very bad Washington Wizards.
The Suns (7-4) played minus-21 in the first quarter to 10 games on Monday-evening. With an excellent figure of plus-64 in the second quarter, they managed to make up for it. However, they can’t rely on it, and Monday showed them why.
Phoenix scored 15 points in the first quarter and was only 20-15 behind with 2:00 to go. The offense was unable to get dribble penetration nor showed any real urgency to create it. That plus bad jump shooting numbers got them there. So when the defense was lax, it really played with fire against an explosive attacking team like Washington.
The Wizards (3-8) absolutely steam-rolled them from then on.
To emphasize how quickly this happened, it was only 15 points ahead of Wizards with 8:42 to go in the second quarter. That rose to 32 in less than four minutes, making it a 37-10 Wizards run in 10 minutes.
The Suns scored just 42 points in the first half against a porous Wizards defense that had given up 65.7 points per first half prior to Monday’s game. They were down the half by 68-42 and couldn’t make up ground, with the biggest margin in the second half being the final score. The Suns shot 4 of 27 from three-point range.
“This is just one of those stinkers that you want to flush and hurry up and get back on the ground,” said head coach Monty Williams.
“Our level of defense just wasn’t where it needed to be,” he added.
This as a whole was a very disconnected effort from the Suns, but the lack of attacking rhythm was there again and is now a bit startling.
One of the trends in there is that Chris Paul is pushing to let Deandre Ayton go early. Paul almost seemingly refuses to come out looking for his own chance until he gets the big guy a good look.
The chemistry there is still a lot of work going on.
Paul has generally never been the type of player to start throwing, and that’s even more so in the twilight of his career. Even in the great season he had for Oklahoma City last year that earned him Second Team All-NBA honors, he only attempted 12.7 shots per game.
In the first quarter of the first 10 games, Paul had 27 field goal attempts against Ayton’s 25. That number for Paul overall was remarkably consistent, staying below three shots per quarter for all four periods.
Paul getting his teammates involved the way he does is part of what makes him an all-time great. A lot of this is starting to get familiar, and he will certainly be a little more aggressive when the group starts clicking.
But while he’s waiting for that, the team specifically needs him to be more of a scoring threat at this point, especially at the start of games and especially when most of his energy has been offensive to get anything for Ayton.
That’s because Ayton’s decisiveness around the edge with the ball has declined to his rookie season and is perhaps the worst it has ever been. He continues to catch the ball close to the basket and doesn’t appear to finish, and on Monday he tripped over himself while flipping the ball twice in the first half.
Wizards starting center Robin Lopez, in front of the injured Thomas Bryant, gave Ayton plenty of space.
This screenshot, from a midrange conversion by Ayton, illustrates the amount of real estate that Ayton could work with to get to the basket if he showed more assertiveness.
Ayton has always been more of a finesse player and his athletic limitations have never made him an incredibly explosive edge player. His first and second jumps have never been great, and the same for his vertical jump when he jumps from one foot along the way.
Sometimes it does not submerge. It drives people crazy, and sometimes it’s fine. It is what it is. He is who he is. As long as the layin doesn’t adversely affect the end product, of course. Do not submerge.
However, the numbers have a surprising difference and a possible correlation with what has just been discussed.
One alley in 11 games in particular is just baffling when you look at the passers-by on the floor (like Paul).
The attacking misery of the starting five is not entirely up to Ayton, but the attempt to involve him and get him energized certainly plays a role in this.
Ayton started the game 1-for-6 and finished with eight points and six rebounds in 25 minutes. His counterpart Lopez had 11 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. Seven of those 11 rebounds were on the attack glass.
Paul registered four points and eight assists in the first half and finished with 14 points and 11 assists.
Devin Booker had 33 points in the defeat.
Bradley Beal scored a game-high 34 points for Washington in the win.
It is now 11 games in the season and the group of Paul, Booker, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and Ayton has yet to gel.
When asked about the bad starts, Williams said he attributes some of it to fame, but flatly said the group isn’t playing well. Booker said it’s plain and straightforward and went so far as to say that they were carried by their bank on most of their wins.
Williams said he owes it to his team to take a “deep look” at possible changes to the starting lineup.
The question is of course what that change could be.
Paul, Booker and Bridges are clearly not going anywhere.
Fans have already pushed Cam Johnson, and while Johnson is a better shooter than Crowder, Crowder has also proven to be the better playmaker and he is the much better defender. Crowder and Paul’s know-how of being on team rotations 99 times out of 100 has made a huge difference in the team defense that was the team’s main strength. That’s also the easiest move if Williams wants to shake things up a bit.
Ayton gives the Suns a presence defensively and on the glass that no one else in the team’s big rotation can get close to. Even if Ayton plays like he did on Monday, that still applies to the interior.
He was also the group’s biggest underachiever. Dario Saric is helping the offensive flow, and with what Ayton has shown this year, Saric is the better offensive player right now. When the starters returned in the fourth quarter, it was Saric a few minutes before Ayton before the number 1 overall played his last shift of the evening.
There are clear concerns about what a move to the bench could mean for 22-year-old Ayton, but it didn’t work for him with the starters, aside from a great two-game trajectory. The other nine have not done well and this team cannot wait for him with the expectations as they are.
Now, the interesting wrinkle is that Williams Saric has played with Ayton for the past three games, after not doing it all season. Saric proved in the bubble that his best role is as a small ball five, but he does indicate a bit of what Crowder does as a smart team defender who can make offensive plays.
However, that’s playing Saric out of position where his speed is exposed at both ends against 4s. It also puts Damian Jones or Frank Kaminsky in the backup center, which is problematic.
It is a difficult decision and not an obvious one. Are the suns ready for a stir? A start of 7-4 doesn’t scream despair, but the disparity between the bank and the starting five allows a small start to trickle in.