Bickley Blast: Suns back under a microscope, just when you thought they were turning a corner

Bickley Blast: Suns back under a microscope, just when you thought they were turning a corner

And marada boings Arizona Sports the local sports leader Bley blast Devin Booker is in the midst of a rampage he scored 152 points in three games that’s over 50 a game and that is the kind of heater that should rocket a man up the list of Allstar balloting except the

Suns have only won one of those games and in the case of Booker it provides idiotic fodder for critics who like to claim that his scoring is superficial like artificial artificial sweetener and that he’s not a winning player we all know that’s nonsense but just what they

Just when this team seem to be gaining elevation the suns are now back under a microscope they have three offensive Superstars but have scored only 30 points in the fourth quarter of the past two games combined a couple of losses that are like recurring warts on the

Back of your hand the turnover issues giving up offensive rebounds struggling to get free throw attempts and struggling to make the ones they do get but more to the point are the endgame performances an issue we had hoped that had evaporated with a pair of magical comebacks against the Kings and the

Bulls instead we’ve got a basketball team that still seems to have some blind spots and some huge gaps in the program the kind that can be only covered up with Transcendent performances and once again our basketball team has regressed apparently stuck on a troubling premise

Namely herob ball can be a lot of fun to watch but it’s hard to sustain and these days it’s really no way to win a championship all right today’s Bley blast brought to brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable find them online at

Chapman B bmw.com just in a in a Zone um trying to hoop trying to win how was Devin Booker he was pretty short with his answers which usually indicates a kind of frustrated basketball player he was in the zone uh 44 points on the heels of a 62o night uh on Friday and

He’s got two losses to show for it and uh this has not been a Devin Booker Problem by any stretch of the imagination you hit on some of those things that have been problems and and let’s go back to Friday night in Indianapolis one of the big refrains

From Suns fans was and it was an issue there’s no doubt about it the lack of whistles that Booker and everybody got in the fourth quarter they Indiana did not have a team foul in the fourth quarter that means zero free throws in the fourth quarter that can bog down

Your offense especially when you’re trying to protect the lead last night it wasn’t much better Orlando again cranked up the physicality used their size frustrated the Suns kind of uh coerced them into some things they didn’t want to do but did it by committing two fouls

Yeah Deon Booker shot two free throws in the fourth quarter that was it for the entire Sun’s team so 30 points in the last two combined fourth quarters and only two of those points coming from the free throw line yeah now listen you know

How I feel about this um we I I cannot stand the hyperfocusing on NBA officiating it to to me it turns a great sport into grievance ball and I do not want to listen to grievances all day long during broadcasts while I watch an NBA team that being said there are

Issues but I but if you are solution driven because yeah a a basketball team should be at the free throw line in the fourth quarter and if they’re not then you’re in one of those games but the way out of one of those games is to match the other team’s physicality or better

Yet exceed it because if the referees are in the State of Mind where we’re not going to call everything so we’re going to let more than we should and you as a basketball team you’ve got two options you can get real angry and complain about it which Frank vogle has been

Doing a lot after games or you can up your physicality and match that and take advantage of that use use the referees to your advantage there’s no other way out of it if you’re looking for Solutions if you’re looking to to complain if you’re looking for

Grievances have at it you you’ve got a ton of them there for you but if you’re looking for Solutions that’s the way out of it along those lines that might be one of the most disappointing things is last week we were talking about in the Chicago game the Suns getting being

Poked by the Bulls and Andre Drummond kind of kind of lighting a fire under the suns and how they responded the very next game to open up the road trip in Dallas you saw the Grant Williams example Grant Williams was uh on his Antics I think as as Devin Booker put it

Didn’t want to play basketball the Suns responded to that um now there wasn’t I guess there was the incident on on Friday night and you know the crowd turned on Devin Booker in Indianapolis after the elbow um to the to to the groin area of Aaron n Smith that didn’t

Get called mhm I think you know I it probably was an offensive foul honestly it was a Mis call by the officials I thought it was highly embellished by n Smith but he used that opportunity to embellish it they showed the replay the fans got behind it it might have changed

The course of the game but you know when Bradley Beal I I think what Miles Turner did to Bradley Beal they’ll never admit it it was retali retaliatory in nature M he disguised it well I think there was purpose behind that elbow I really do and it messed Bradley Beal up not only

For the rest of that game and credit to him for coming back I agree he is finding himself right now because he’s got to deal with breathing issues and that mask I I’m not sure where that mask came from and I know you have to Bob koo’s Locker in

1951 that is funny my goodness yeah well at least didn’t come from Jason from Friday the 13th go back would better son’s history there was a player in the 70s named Curtis Perry who broke his nose or broke something in his face and you can find pictures of Curtis Perry

Wearing like a Jason Vorhees hockey mask that’s funny that you might have been better off with that that’s funny because it it was not working yeah no listen it it’s I don’t know if you’ve ever messed around and tried to wear one A buddy of mine had an issue and he

Played basketball he said dude try this and I’m like okay you know I know it’s yeah it’s probably pretty gross right but I tried it pickup game it’s impossible I don’t know how NBA players even can operate it’s the breathing the sight the sweat it’s fogs up fogs up

It’s just it’s a nightmare yeah I’ve got a lot of respect for Bradley Beal after I saw that incident on Friday I thought he was going to be shelled for a while cuz that was that was a vicious elbow shocked to see him come back in game and

And for him to give it a shot yesterday um I’m like okay dude’s got some toughness good to see that’s good didn’t know yeah he uh talked about the fourth quarter issues last night as well I mean I don’t take anything away from them they’re very talented group I think we

Kind of shot ourselves in the foot personally I think we we just didn’t have we we just lost our energy we lost our focus in the second half we just weren’t there for whatever reason you know we kind of just discombobulated really quick and they’re a really good

Team they play hard uh they play aggressively they defend well they rebound well hell they had 20 more shots than we did but uh man it’s just a testament to how how hard they play you know but they have good size like you said I mean you definitely credit that

Cuz they utiliz it they got in paint they abused it K us on the boards yeah that is math that doesn’t work out when you’re turning the ball over as frequently as the suns are and you’re failing to keep opponents off the offensive glass you get 20 more shots

Against you you’re going to lose you’re going to lose it doesn’t matter what you do because again the sun shot the ball incredibly well for three quarters last night and the fourth quarter was terrible but after the first quarter last night the Suns lost the next three quarters they got outscored after the

First quarter by 26 points so again it is trying to put something resembling four solid quarters of basketball together which has been an issue for this team for quite some time yeah and and the only thing troubling about this now the Pacers game it look I I think that the

Fourth quarter when you distill and you get by the officiating woes in that game the the fourth quarter issues propped up in that game as well the defensive issues propped up in that game as well I I really hoped that the team during that winning streak had kind of developed a

Sturdier Persona and you remember me raving about them last week that they kind of were getting a little hardcore kind of getting in other team’s heads and being very resilient and and being very stoic and I I I hope that we’re not dealing now with with the like you

Know dealing with illusions that that what we saw was were the exceptions and not the norm you’ve got an interesting game tonight cuz the Heat have been struggling mightily mhm they’re trying to get uh Terry Rosier acclimated to their team they’ve had some injury problems as well but

What they lost six in a row into tonight’s game and then you that’s with Jimmy Butler back and then you’ve got a couple of winnable games right it’s the Wizards and then Wizards at the tail end and there’s one one other one there’s one other one Brooklyn and Atlanta yeah

That’s okay okay so it so so there’s still a chance to come back from this road trip and go okay this was this was this was good yeah if you come back five and two even with the ugliness of these last two that’s yeah you’ll still though tonight’s the second

Half of a backtack featuring you know we already were saying Kevin Durant looked fatigued yesterday yeah he has to play better because you can’t get 70 points from Booker my prediction is Durant scores over 40 tonight oh yeah I don’t know if it means they win but well no

You’re right but but this is the the thing you talk about the unprecedented unprecedented nature of the Suns having six consecutive games of four a score with 40 or more points I I don’t see that ending anytime soon I mean with the lack of production

They get from the bench I I would like to see it more evenly spread out same 25 and 25 that’d be fantastic because it seems like in this run especially these last two games when you got one guy going off there’s a lot of standing and watching going on and others lose

Confidence or defer too much and the overpassing yep thanks for watching Bickley and marada click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

On Monday’s Bickley Blast, Dan Bickley breaks down the Suns recent losing streak and what they can do to get back on track in Miami against the Heat.

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports

Photo: Rich Storry/Getty Images

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