The Suns stifled by the Thunders elite defense

Behind Devin Booker’s frustration towards the referees lies a more general despair, linked to the struggles for the Suns to express themselves in this series against the Thunder.

After a Game 1 finished with only 84 points on 35% shooting, the Suns suffered greatly tonight from their turnovers. “22 turnovers in a game, we know it’s their specialty. We need to find a way to force them to commit more turnovers. For us, exploiting their turnovers is also a crucial element,” notes Jordan Ott.

His team wasted 22 opportunities, which translated into as many points for the Thunder. The latter lost 10 turnovers and only conceded 9 points after a turnover. A differential in this category that plays a significant role in the final gap.

Phoenix’s coach, who believes that the OKC players “do not make many defensive errors,” feels that his players should sometimes prioritize taking shots to aim for offensive rebounds rather than risking losing possession of the ball.

Devin Booker struggles

Approaching halftime, for example, we saw Devin Booker trying to drive to the basket. But faced with the arms of Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren coming to help, he was forced to pass the ball back to Ryan Dunn, ending up in a turnover and another on the following possession, where Jalen Williams made the difference with his active hands to steal the ball.

“It’s no coincidence that they have been the best defensive team for several years. They have multiple players to send at him. They operate in different ways. They add a big on him,” describes the coach after the evening of 22 points on 7/14 shooting and 6 turnovers from his leader.

From this game, Ott still highlights the positive battle fought by his team, which, despite being down by 26 points, managed to come back to within 10 points. But he knows that his team must regroup offensively and overcome the physical defense on the other side if they want to have a chance in this series.

“We always want to try to move the defense, at least. I found that we picked up the pace in moments where we could attack the basket. Overall, we will continue to analyze all of this. A very good defense, an elite defense, forces you to play in a certain way for 48 minutes,” concludes the coach.