Devin Booker scored 32. The rest of Phoenix’s starters combined for 27, and San Antonio turned the gap into a 26-point loss.
PHOENIX — Devin Booker brought the offense. The Suns brought very little else.
Booker scored 32 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three and 9-of-10 at the line. Only one other Sun reached double figures: rookie Khaman Maluach, who scored 11 off the bench. Phoenix fell 122–96, losing every quarter and dropping to 3–6.
The score tells the story. The Spurs led 61–46 at halftime, then won the third quarter 32–22 to stretch the margin to 25. San Antonio shot 51.1% from the field; Phoenix shot 39.3%. The Spurs also won the rebounding battle 65–44 and handed out 30 assists to the Suns’ 21. Phoenix actually turned the ball over fewer times, 7 to 9. The problem was what happened after the Spurs got the ball: they made more shots, moved the ball better and controlled the glass. Team stats
Victor Wembanyama was the matchup Phoenix could not solve. He scored 40 points on 15-of-19 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots in just 25 minutes. San Antonio had 11 blocks as a team. The Suns kept driving into a defense that erased shots at the rim, while Phoenix struggled to get enough stops and rebounds to run.
The supporting cast was nowhere near enough. Dillon Brooks finished with seven points on 3-of-14 shooting and no assists. Jalen Green had six points on 2-of-8 shooting, four assists and three turnovers. Together, they scored 13 on 5-of-22 shooting. Miles Bridges and Oso Ighodaro added seven points apiece.
The dip from Saturday’s win over Houston was stark: Green went from 16 points to six, and Brooks from 11 to seven. Phoenix had faced another tough opponent in short order, but a demanding schedule does not explain away this level of missing production. Two games cannot tell us whether fatigue, matchups or something else is behind it. They do show that Booker cannot be the only dependable scorer.
That is the question the Suns need to answer before the next game: who creates offense when Booker is covered, and who turns a stop. I guess tonights game was a big ask from a team that knows its not on the same level as its elite competition, but you still have to at least show up.