Game Recap: Suns suffer second-straight loss, lose to undermanned Rockets 111-104

Turnovers, bad rotations, and a bad second half led to Phoenix’s 36th loss of the year.

The Phoenix Suns suffered a 111-104 loss against the Houston Rockets. Sloppy offense, poor effort, and bad rotations led to their 36th loss of the year and finishing 1-3 on their four-game road trip. Jalen Green led the effort for the Rockets, scoring 29 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists.

With the Dallas Mavericks losing, it was a great opportunity for the Valley to make up ground in the play-in standings; they remain 2.5 out of the 10 spot. Phoenix was without Grayson Allen and Nick Richards, but Houston had their star young guard Amen Thompson sidelined.

Top Performers

Bradley Beal — 25 points, 3 assists

Kevin Durant — 19 points, 7 rebounds

Jalen Green — 29 points, 7 rebounds

Alperun Sengün — 20 points, 7 assists

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Game Flow

First Half

The game started pretty close, with neither taking a convincing lead early. Houston took the first firm lead of the game when they went up 18-11, but the Suns quickly retaliated and went on a 14-3 to take a 25-21 lead. Kevin Durant had a good first quarter, scoring nine points in the frame, but at the end of one, a late flurry by Houston gave them a 32-27 lead.

Houston’s lead hovered around 3-5 points for the first part of the second. Bradley Beal started to find his groove as the quarter went on, and a Tyus Jones triple gave the Suns their first lead of the frame.

With about 3:12 left until half, Steven Adams and Mason Plumlee got into a bit of a scuffle, leading both to ejections. The interaction seemed to be pretty intense from the broadcast and this post from Duane Rankin showed as much.

After cooler heads prevailed and play resumed, Phoenix and Houston finished out the half with the Rockets up 57-52. Beal, Booker, and Durant combined for 32 points while Jalen Green, Alperun Sengün and Dillon Brooks went for 38.

Second Half

With Plumlee ejected, Oso Ighodaro started the second half for the Valley. With the Suns playing bad defense and the Rockets making tough shots, Houston built their first double-digit lead of the game early in the frame. Playing disengaged and disheveled, Houston kept their lead in tact for the entirety of the quarter. The team’s third quarter woes were on full display in this one. The team lost the quarter by just four, but their effort made it seem like it was a worse quarter for them than it was. It was 88-79 Houston.

After playing a combined 1:57 in the last two games, Ryan Dunn got more playing time, playing in the start of the fourth. His strong defensive effort was not able to bring the Valley closer to coming back.

Bad rotations on defense extended the Houston lead and led by Sengün, the Rockets got easy shots inside. The Suns didn’t have any comeback in them and Mike Budenholzer went with the reserves with about three minutes left and they cut the lead to double digits, but the game was nearly over by the time they did.

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

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Up Next

Phoenix will play some of their last divisional games of the season, facing the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers the rest of the week. The Suns will play the Luka Dončić Lakers for the first time.

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