Devin Booker Responds & Phoenix Suns Show Signs of Life But Lose to Dallas In Familiar Fashion

Devin Booker Responds & Phoenix Suns Show Signs of Life But Lose to Dallas In Familiar Fashion

In the leadup to the Phoenix Suns Christmas Day matchup against the Dallas Mavericks both Frank vogle and Damen Lee told Suns fans we’re close stick with us things are coming together and then they lost another familiar game on today’s episode of Locked on suns were there signs of life

And why did it collapse once again let’s go you are locked on Sons your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and we’re back this is lockon Phoenix Suns we are part of the lockon podcast Network I’m your host Brendan clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer ATS suns.com and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get

Your podcast a big thank you for making locked on Sons your first listen here on a Tuesday we are out of the holiday weekend we are back to business as usual and it is time for more sunto so if you are finding us for the first time hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re

Finding the show we appreciate you being here we’re free and available on all podcast platforms including YouTube just hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re finding the show get a new episode in your feed Monday through Friday each and every week all season long becom an every dayer and get locked on to the

Suns right along with me every day Today’s Show is brought to you by the game time app download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase all right lot to get to the sun’s lost 128 to 114 on Christmas Day

Although calling at day almost feels like uh incorrect Christmas night very late uh the game ended after 11:00 local it ended after midnight in Dallas I I don’t uh sometimes the Christmas Day schedule it’s like could we do one less game but the suns were on the wrong end

Of it regardless they had an opportunity at home no Kyrie Irving on the other side and an opportunity to get right and they had a chance they they were up one I believe heading into the fourth quarter lose by 14 very familiar to any Suns fan who has been watching

This team for any length of time this season but we’re going to zoom in on the fourth quarter I know nobody wants to hear that nobody wants to do that but the reality is that is when this thing got away from the Suns and I want to go through a

Few of the familiar numbers to start all right the Mavericks shot 68% from the field the Suns uh and four of eight from three I should point point out the Suns turned the ball over six times and we’re one of eight from three okay Dallas was outrebounded most

Of the night on the whole the Suns had 47 rebounds to just 38 for Dallas but in the fourth quarter Dallas had 11 rebounds the Suns had just six Dallas was able to get three of its eight offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone a lot of familiar numbers there there eight free

Throw attempts for the Mavs compared to just three for the Suns I mean all these things when you look at 37 to 22 in terms of the point totals it shouldn’t be a surprise but those numbers are exactly where things went wrong the here’s the deal I I tweeted these clips right where

The suns are the two mistakes that I thought were the the most indicative of their problems but I want to say first I think that there was progress in this game all right I don’t want to just spend the whole podcast hammering them on the same exact things we’ve seen over

And over and just doing the same podcast that I’ve done several times in a row now you know I know the audio audience you know I know you guys are are fading on me the YouTube is there I I I hear that Suns fans are frustrated I I was

Venting to my wife driving uh back to our house from my parents house on Christmas Day when the Kevin Durant report came out and I was dreading the game to a degree and I just you know I feel it is my point all right and so I’m not going to

Do the same thing and I and I want to get that out of the way and I will talk about some of the progress that we saw whether that was players whether that was uh some some stylistic things that I’ll I’ll walk through and even some leadership steps that I think we saw

This team take okay but I tweeted the two clips about the defense that I think highlight what went wrong one was the Luca donic three on the right wing in transition a few minutes into the quarter that cut the lead from that cut the lead to one at 102 101

Sons that three was in transition as I said off of a single high screen by Dante Exum and Luca just walked into a three after Grayson Allen got caught up on the screen and he fought through it fine like he sort of had a hand in Luca’s face but he’s a few inches

Shorter than Luca and Luca was hot and it was a rhythm three but it wasn’t Grayson’s fault that three happened because as you can see in the the Highlight if you go back and watch the the clip on my Twitter or on any of the highlight

Videos I’m sure that shot was in there because it was a big one Eric Gordon and chimi metu are pointing around trying to get on the same page as as effectively it looked like they both were trying to guard uh Derek Lively now I don’t exactly know what the

Matchups were supposed to be but in that type of a case it kind of doesn’t matter right because if you see somebody on his way to 50 points who has been killing you with threes pull up threes all night and you know he’s been looking to take them in

Transition you just find him you see a high drag screen by anybody on that team and you see Grayson needing to fight through that and you can foresee there’s going to be an opportunity for Luca to take that shot you just run and go get a hand in his

Face so even if Dante exom who set that screen is not your guy right you just go but instead it’s pointing fingers it’s miscommunication and Luca gets that shot to go in later on I I posted a clip of Derrik Jones Jr on the short roll getting a finish at the basket that

Extended the lead around the 4minute Mark or so something like that to nine points I think it was 115 to 106 the suns were stuck at 106 for a while but defensively on that particular shot you had Jones and and look this was a lineup where you have to give some credit to

Dallas they sort of recognized the opportunity to go for the kill shot and they did it Seth Curry didn’t even take a shot in this game but his presence out there required the sons to guard him spread the floor for the pick and roll that the Mavs were

Running and even when they weren’t using Lively as the screener which you would think and they had him in the dunker spot along the Baseline the sun still didn’t have enough resistance because Hardaway and Curry were out there Luca was just a master as a passer last night

And that that put the Suns on their back foot and again in that clip allowed Derrick Jones Jr to catch the ball get all the way to the Bas and the Suns did not tag him on the rooll he gets to the basket Durant is

There doesn’t put up much of a fight or even foul him and Durant only ended the game with two fouls so you know it wasn’t as if he’s playing with five and needing to be cautious and there were tons of plays like that where yeah you don’t want to help from

The strong side where Booker was and leave Tim Hardaway Jr open to stop Derrick Jones Jr I guess at the end of the day you’re fine with him making you eat that but the bottom line is the ease with which Dallas was able to get what

It wanted the lack of recognition by the Suns to stop what was working led to that 37-point quarter on the other end the turnovers once again killed them I mentioned they had six Durant had three of those Grayson Allen had one Eric Gordon I don’t know if he actually

Logged one I can check it I have the box score open Gordon did not uh get one counted against him but I believe he had two shots or two passes where he threw it and it bounced off of a Mavs player and went out of bounds but they were not

You know direct passes and then Josh aogi had an errant pass early in the quarter that technically deflected off of metu but really was aoi’s fault because he was not getting his three ball to go down and kind of panicked and tossed a bad pass to metu so it was familiar but

Again they had a chance to win this game which is better than you could have said against even the Blazers in the fourth quarter let alone that Kings game and I think a lot of that had to do with Devin Booker so I want to get to him what we

Saw from him on the court and the increasing presence that he is trying to occupy off the court as a leader and what that tells us about where this team’s at next first Today’s Show brought to you by eBay Motors our partners at eBay motors have teamed up with locked on Fantasy

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Here on locked on suns 128 114 was the final score but let’s zoom in on Devin Booker for our big takeaway from tonight’s game all right because or last night’s game because what Booker showed on and off the court I think was really telling of where this team

Is it got a lot of attention that Booker and Durant both took so few shots and that’s perfectly fine with me um I get I get the criticism it’s it’s not a a winning strategy long term but I thought in the fourth quarter of anything that went well it was Booker’s

Aggressiveness looking to score got to the free throw line got a floater to go in took a pull-up three in this stretch and it felt like the level of fight that you would want to see now that might sound like I’m am just buttering him up or being a homer or

Whatever it’s why I started with ripping into them for what happened in the fourth quarter I know ripping I I don’t I don’t yell or anything but you you just heard me criticize them all right so I’m not making excuses here but I’m trying to be honest and to

Also give the reminder that I do think this game was a sign of progress even if it doesn’t feel that way and some of what Booker was doing in that quarter was an example of that it felt like he was in Rhythm a little bit more and I

Think a lot of that had to do with the flow that their offense had and you can be upset but it did I mean it did right Grayson Allen had a huge game chimi metu had a huge game I’ll talk about the three-pointers to close out

The show in the next segment the team was getting those up they were playing more coherent playground basketball than they have in a while and that’s what they want to do right they they are going to run some sets they are going to have some structure I think when nurkic

Is out there even more so but there were a lot of plays and and and Allen had a lot of them where Raiden react is is is the name of their scheme right like that’s their scheme whether you like it or not that’s how this team was built and you know

There was the play where Booker passed up the layup to take a Grayson Allen shot and to pass to Grayson Allen for an open shot there were a couple of those moments with Gordon where he ended up throwing a bad pass where he he had a shot that was

Open and the flow was better they had 28 assists but to me if you were to look at like the number of passes I would imagine that was higher and everybody I would say the shot quality in this game was just better than it’s been in a long

Time to stay on the court for a second though before we move to off the court what I think we’re realizing is the ultimate place that this flow and this offensive scheme needs to get is for the ball movement the re the reaction in the reads to

Be at or above where they were on Christmas but for those plays to end with a shot for the best players Frank vogle said this postgame an ideal possession for the Suns might start with Booker and Durant then involve a high level of IQ and ball and ball movement decisionmaking and then

Also then end with a shot for the best players and that brings me back to the pullup three that Booker took in the fourth quarter there’s no way around this I’ve been talking about this since I have been hosting this show solo for the past basically three just over three years

Now in order for Booker to be the ve best version of himself because he is not a an athlete on par with you know johnar or Anthony Edwards because he is not the you know passer of Luca or LeBron or Harden or whoever you want to point to

And because frankly he’s not as big as obviously some of those guys I just listed or of course Nicole yokich or or Joel embiid or Giannis he has to keep the defense Honest by taking the shots that are given even if they’re difficult which often is going to be a pull-up three and

With how he’s guarded it’s going to look like the pull-up threes that Luca takes the pull-up threes that Damen Lillard takes the pull-up threes that Steph Curry takes where it’s not even open contested pull-up threes are going to be the way for he he himself to keep

The defense on its toes because what we have seen lately if you are paying attention is even as the Suns have struggled even as as they have lost some ugly games Booker has kept his turnovers low during this stretch he had that seven turnover game against the Lakers

Since then he’s only had one game of five or more turnovers and that was the the game against Washington a week and a half ago honestly even on the whole season he has only had three total sorry yeah three total games with five or more turnovers sorry

Four the Spurs game when he came back from injury too early in the beginning of the season the Grizzlies game where he was kind of having to do it all that Wizard’s game and that Lakers game he’s talked a lot this year about making the right play and he’s doing that but what

That ends up resulting in is 22 shot attempts for Grayson Allen 18 shot attempts for chimi metu only 11 for for Durant and only 14 for himself right three role players took more shots than Kevin Durant last night two role players took more shots than Allen and than Booker did and those

Were Allen and to on the court aggressiveness for Booker looks like taking pull-up threes making the right play might be better than a turnover but it might not be enough to win these games off the court well I wouldn’t even say off the court but non athletically like things he is doing

As a person as a leader I think we’re headed in the right direction with Booker I think I think if you are a Suns fan and you are watching what Booker has been doing since that Portland uh yeah let’s say since the Portland game but especially in the

Leadup to this game the comments he had in practice on Christmas Eve how he handled himself on the court on Christmas and postgame after the Christmas game he is responding like the Cornerstone of a franchise should okay he was heard on on the broadcast calling out chesi metu for a

Turnover you could see him in timeouts in breaks and play go like digging into his teammates a little bit but also communicating during multiple free throw breaks with Durant with great uh Eric Gordon trying to figure out what was going right what was going wrong what needed to be fixed what they were

Going to run the next time down all sorts of things and a lot of the time you could see that progress be made he was also the guy there was a loose ball that he Dove for late in the game there was the chase down you know hustle back

On defense that of course he wasn’t going to block Luca on the the the run out shot when metu had that turnover when the mic caught him criticizing metu but the point is he was demonstrating and feeding into what he is demanding of his teammates I thought

Defensively while Booker is far from a game-changing Defender even at his best in terms of a Team Defender he had opportunities against Luca that he handled fine as well as anybody you know for a guy who had 50 I didn’t feel like Booker was sticking out like a sore

Thumb he was executing he was helping you know as much as a 65 guy who is not an elite Defender can do I thought he was demonstrating what needed to happen for the team to get past this slump and then post game he was pretty pointed right his tone his words everything you

Would have seen from Booker in that postgame situation gave off what you would want to see that only goes so far I pointed out making a pass is not always the best play aggressiveness looking to score means taking those contested pull-up threes even if they’re not comfortable he still had some moments

Where he allowed the offense to break down I am not here to defend Devin Booker after another double digit loss in a late game collapse if he was truly doing everything you would want from your best player they probably would have been winning more of these games

Lately but as far as looking to turn the page get over the hump I think Booker demonstrated as a competitor and as a leader some fight that without that nothing’s ever going to get better let’s close the show with some rapid fire on threes pace and a breakout role player

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Game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right let’s close out the show the Phoenix Suns might have a new role player on their hands somebody that they can trust that’s Chi metu 23 points 19 rebounds nine of 18 from the field and some inconsistency remains on

Defense but for a team that is simply looking to solidify a rotation and find guys who consistently put in effort he has more than earned himself an opportunity Yousef nurkic the sun said it will be back on he’ll be back with the team on Tuesday as I’m recording

This and apparently we’ll be you know what you would think ready to play then Wednesday night against the I believe they play the rockets on the road right so that’s good news in general but I think metu at this point probably just has to be the backup center I mean I

Know that he I’ve said many times I don’t think he’s a center but I also think the Suns have adjusted their approach with him to be more of a switch guy to not always be guarding the opposing Center some of those different things and that recipe seems to me to be

Working so he’s not so much of a negative on defense and he’s being put into position to succeed more but the other thing we saw from metu last night aside from some of those structural differences were that he definitely competed on the glass and you know it’s

Just about stacking up things that Frank vogle and the coaching staff can be sure they are getting from you when they put you on the court right that’s sort of the that’s the calculus right and so metu six offensive rebounds 19 total that’s sorely needed for this team and

Again as I said at the the beginning of the show over the course of the whole game the Suns really owned the glass even though that went away in the fourth quarter as well if you’re going to get that from metu then some of the other stuff he doesn’t bring becomes more

Palatable but you know honestly it wasn’t even just more of the same from him on offense it wasn’t like he just had a couple of nice finishes and some got hot from three you know he was a big part of why they their ball movement was better too you know

He on the short roll was pretty he was making good decisions he was processing the game pretty quickly you know making the catch knowing where he was going with the ball most of the time he looked to be a playmaker in those situations which is totally fine I

Mean that’s what Yousef nurkic does but eventually could those turn into some finishes for for points or drawing some fouls by you know catching that ball taking a couple dribbles and and getting all the way to the basket maybe I mean the guy’s Talent is is Skyhigh so

Offensively we know what he can do if he can have more positivity and and stick with his his own approach and not get so down on himself I mean this guy wears his heart on his sleeve in these games to a point where it’s like even as a

Viewer especially if you’re in the arena you see it it is just it’s it almost feels performative and I don’t like that sounds harsher than I mean it but metu is is one of these guys where it’s like he wants everybody on the team and the

Coaches to know he knows right I made a mistake it’s like dude this thing is in a bad place right now we we saw you we all saw you make the mistake raise your hand cop to what you did flush that down the toilet get back in the next

Possession right and it’s like he wants to it’s just so overwhelming to him but if he can start to get more consistent minutes know what his role is going to be Stack Up rebound good rebounding games good passing games good scoring games he’ll develop the trust of these

Guys and he will start to feel more comfortable and I think yesterday could be a huge stepping stone for that even if all the issues that I just listed off are still going to be there three-pointers and again metu was a big part of of generating some of these the

Suns got up 41 you know locked on suns Insider text alert subscribers saw pregame my my keys to the game which included threes because Dallas got up gets up the second most as a as a part portion of their total shots every night there’s second in the league in that

Behind only Boston almost half of Dallas’s shots come from three every night in the Christmas game more than half their shots came from three and the Suns kept pace with that that’s huge that’s really big time obviously late between Luca and Derrik Jones and Tim Hardaway those the the makes ended up

Favoring Dallas but still the Suns made 14 it’s not like they went crazy cold the right guys made uh took them you know I mentioned Booker and Durant need to be taking more but Eric Gordon got up seven chimzi metu got up six Grayson Allen got up 17 and they went away from

The iogi thing I think probably maybe a little too late whatever he only ended up getting up three and missed all of them but if that’s a different guy in the future you know maybe it’s I just don’t know I’m not going to go on that tangent right

Now point is they’ve emphasized getting up threes Suns fans knew they needed to and it happened check that box keep it up last thing pace I thought obviously the half court Pace was much better the passing the quick decisions the plan all of that looked better I do think it’s

True whether you agree or not you got to be honest and I think we saw a lot more execution when it came to that stuff transition wise though it was also a pretty strong showing for the Suns they didn’t execute or I guess they didn’t make shots off of steals but they they

Ran off of steals but the biggest thing was they ran off of live rebounds so when Dallas missed and especially because when when a team takes a lot of Threes you’re going to have opportunities with those long rebounds to push the pace and they did they ran

On more than a third of the Mavs missed shots and they were able to generate 1.5 points per play on those which is huge I mean that’s the equivalent of like a dunk you know and so they were able to to really improve their overall offensive performance by doing that on a

Night where you know they did still turn the ball over 15 times they missed some some of the threes that they did generate and everything else without that this game probably got even uglier that’s progress that is what we want this team to do and so when you

Zoom out even though it was another fourth quarter collapse the half court execution and flow was better they got up more threes they pushed the ball in transition more they got steady performances from more players than they have in a while and they owned the glass their turnovers

Were not crazy bad these are a lot of things that went the positive direction from where they had been against a better opponent in Dallas than they have faced in a while I think Dallas overall is a difficult opponent to scheme for than the Kings but you could feel differently Washington the

Knicks the Blazers the Nets like the Mavs are the best opponent they faced considering Luca was so hot and they still managed to show some things in addition to what I think we saw from Booker and other guys in terms of communication and fight and everything

Else I hope I’m not being naive to you guys but this I I I waited I didn’t record an episode at 1:00 in the morning like a lunatic blury eyed and mad and whatever watch back the key moments watched the whole fourth quarter clipped up some stuff and

Tweeted it took some notes and I truly still believe this so that’s my thoughts on the game we’ll talk to you tomorrow well tonight Wednesday night I guess no I’m going to do another episode between now and then this is Tuesday’s episode you will hear from me one more

Time Wednesday check back for a game preview on the audio feed on Wednesday after afternoon to get you ready for Suns rockets and then a recap of suns Rockets after the buzzer on Wednesday night enjoy your Wednesday and I’ll catch you guys then

Devin Booker showed fight and the Phoenix Suns improved but still lost to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks with another fourth quarter collapse.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down what went wrong in a familiar fourth quarter, how Book showed what you want from a leader, and what the Suns can build on to finally get back in the win column.

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