Losses of turnovers and defense condemn the Suns to another ugly defeat against the Pistons

The Phoenix Suns wanted to build on a win over Portland, get some rest and return to full strength for their final two three-game homestands against two sub-.500 teams.

Instead, they lost Devin Booker to a groin injury and lost a second straight game to the Detroit Pistons (12-17), 133-125, on Saturday after losing to the Pacers on Thursday.

Once again doomed by turnovers, the Suns (14-13) scored 19 points on 34 Detroit points Saturday, two days after Indiana (13-15) scored 29 points on 16 Phoenix turnovers.

Kevin Durant scored a season-high 43 points but committed eight turnovers after committing five turnovers against Indiana on Friday. Bradley Beal scored 26 points while Tyus Jones added 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Here are three takeaways as the Suns look to bounce back on Monday in Denver before facing the Nuggets again on Christmas. Phoenix is now 11^Th in the West after ranking sixth before Thursday’s game against the Pacers.

Injury update

Grayson Allen suffered a late blow to the back of the head from Pistons forward Simone Fontecchio, who caught him with an elbow while scoring on a putback of an offensive rebound in the third quarter.

Allen remained on the ground and took about a minute to recover. He did not return to the game after heading to the locker room with 2:10 left in the third period. The Suns could be without Allen on Monday.

Bol Bol did not play Saturday because he suffered a bruised left knee in practice, Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said. He has only played in seven games this season, but the 7-footer was someone who was productive last season when he played.

Then there’s Booker, who has already been ruled out for Monday’s game. Booker will be reevaluated early next week.

So the Suns could lose three players just two days after going into Thursday’s game at full strength.

Defense, turnovers condemn Suns again

A team that shoots 57.7% from the field, makes 14 of 29 from 3 and scores 125 points shouldn’t lose, but the Suns are a bad defensive team, especially against the 3rd.

Phoenix is 24^Th in the defensive rating. Only Chicago, Portland, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Washington and Utah are worse. These teams all have losing records; Phoenix is just one game over .500.

Detroit entered the game shooting 35.8% from three, but made six threes more than their average on 19 of 39 on Saturday.

The Suns are now 26^Th in 3 percentage defense after the Pistons lit them up at home.

The turnovers put their defense in bad positions, but the Suns have poor floor balance and don’t finish well on 3s. The Suns felt like they were forcing harder threes later in the game, but the Pistons shot them with equal confidence.

Budenholzer preaches individual 1-on-1 defense, but the Suns have struggled with that, particularly in the outfield. When the Pistons got into the game, they finished with either lob dunks or 3-second kickouts.

Cunningham closer

As the top pick in the 2021 draft, Cade Cunningham initially faced pressure to perform at a high level.

He’s had some setbacks on a bad team and some growing pains, but he’s also progressed as a player and is trying to show he can be a point guard.

Cunningham showed and proved it on Saturday with his 28 point, 13 assist performance, with the ability to not only dictate the game but also defeat a playoff team that wouldn’t even make the play-ins if the playoffs would begin today.

Crazy, right?

Cunningham scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth period against Jones and even Durant. He finished the game with a 3 to give Detroit a 130-123 lead with 32.9 seconds left.

Detroit is on the right track to becoming respectable again under JB Bickerstaff. Cunningham will have a say in this and will receive All-Star honors when the time comes.

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