Posted on by

The Suns fall to the Pistons in their preseason rematch without the injured Devin Booker

The Suns fall to the Pistons in their preseason rematch without the injured Devin Booker

play

Royce O’Neale showed the biggest fight for the Phoenix Suns, going down and deflecting the ball from Ron Holland in the first half.

That being said, the Suns didn’t offer much resistance to the Detroit Pistons on Friday night as they lost their preseason opener at home 109-91 in front of 17,071 fans at the Footprint Center.

The Suns were up to 28 points behind and lost their first preseason game of the 2024/25 season. Kevin Durant led the Suns with 18 points, Bradley Beal scored 17 and Tyus Jones added 11, all in the first half.

Devin Booker sat out as a precautionary measure with a right ankle injury, Jusuf Nurkic missed a third straight game with a left middle finger injury and Grayson Allen sat out with a Achilles tendon injury.

Allen previously came out for personal reasons as he and his wife are expecting. Rookie Ryan Dunn got the start for Booker.

The Suns were without three key players in their third preseason game in six days, falling to a rebuilding team they had just beaten at Michigan State on Tuesday. Cade Cunningham scored a game-high 25 points while Tobias Harris delivered 22 after being inactive against Phoenix on Tuesday.

Here are three takeaways as the Suns now prepare for their fourth preseason game in eight days on Sunday in Denver.

Defensive setback

The Suns improved from Game 1 on Sunday against the Lakers in Palm Desert to Game 2 on Tuesday, but took a step backwards on Friday, giving up 40 points in the first quarter.

The 40 points allowed came after Phoenix conceded 97 in four quarters of their eight-point win over those same Pistons. Harris, who did not play on Tuesday, scored 20 points in the first half.

The Suns couldn’t get around screens, which led to lob dunks. They didn’t contest Detroit’s 3-point shots and continue to have trouble defending the win. Phoenix allowed 50 inside points.

The Pistons had 23 fast break points as the Suns obviously couldn’t get back on defense.

Nurkic’s return should bolster the interior halfcourt defense a bit as they lack consistent physicality inside, but the Suns were also leaky with their perimeter defense on Friday.

Dunn didn’t have the same defensive impact in the first half as Cunningham, who he limited on Tuesday night and scored 18 first-half points on Friday night.

Everyone gets caught, but Dunn took part. The same cannot be said about everyone else on defense.

Again one on one

The Suns’ lack of ball and player movement last season resulted in a potent one-on-one offense. The ball has been banging so far this season – they had 30 assists on Tuesday – but that wasn’t the case on Friday.

The Suns had 24 assists. Durant took more dribbles on Friday than in the previous two games combined.

He’s one of the greatest scorers of all time, the purest to ever put the ball in the basket, but the Suns didn’t create shots for him with the pass like they did on Tuesday.

Beal led the way with 15 points in the first half. He quickly looked to the rim, found 3 range and scored on the jumper. He can do it with the best of them, but the Suns are at their best moving the ball and getting open looks.

The Pistons increased their physicality on defense, but the Suns lacked ball movement. Although they made 22 of three shots in the first half, they only made six. Phoenix lacked quality visuals.

Jones finished the game with an uncharacteristic assist-to-turnover ratio of 3-to-2.

The Rookies: Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro Game 3

They had their moments.

Oso Ighodaro and Dunn had consecutive blocks in the first half. Dunn hit a 3 and Ighodaro had a handful of assists, but they didn’t have as big an impact on the game as before.

Ighodaro didn’t score on three shot attempts, while Dunn shot 1 of 6 from the field and 1 of 5 from 3 after going 5 of 11 from the first two preseason games.

The Pistons made an adjustment in defending Ighodaro’s dives to the rim when one of Jones’ turnovers involved the rookie going big with a lob dunk. Dunn also had two turnovers and tried to do too much with the pass.

They are newbies. You learned how a team can make an adjustment to neutralize its impact on the game.

Do you have any opinions on the current state of the suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.