The Phoenix Suns can’t lean on their shot-making all night, especially if their defense is not up to par, a lesson they have been given in a few different losses similar to Friday’s 122-115 final to the Toronto Raptors.
Like Thursday’s victory in Indiana, the Suns got a terrific one-two punch from Devin Booker and Jalen Green on a low-assist night as a team with an inconsistent defensive effort.
That is simply not sustainable and is a hard swerve away from the identity Phoenix built up this season. Getting back to it in the short term will be extremely challenging, with a six-game road trip now reaching its back-half in Boston, Minnesota and San Antonio.
The 20 assists on Friday move the Suns’ record to 14-23 when they fail to reach 25. In games when they’ve been at 25-plus, they are 25-5.
You could see the close to this game coming from a mile away. Phoenix’s defense could not contain Toronto’s larger and quicker ball-handlers all night, with its poor on-ball defense flaring up yet again. The Suns used superior shot-making through three quarters to make up for that, mainly without a ton of ball movement.
That came to a head in the fourth quarter, when a 23-5 Raptors run went from the Suns leading by 10 with 8:10 remaining to down eight with 28 seconds left.
In a six-possession sequence that summed everything up, Phoenix’s three tries were via a Booker offensive foul, a Green step-back 3 and a Haywood Highsmith hook shot under the basket.
Toronto, on the other hand, had Scottie Barnes drive straight through a defender for a dunk, Brandon Ingram comfortably get to a midrange jumper in the paint and R.J. Barrett drill an open corner 3.
The Suns’ defensive execution off the ball wasn’t nearly good enough to make up for their ineptitude elsewhere on that end, in addition to the uncharacteristic offensive flow.
Points in the paint finished a staggering 60-32 Raptors and Phoenix was only +5 at the free-throw line.
Booker really lost his way in clutch time, when he should have deferred to Green for at least a possession or two before it was too late. While Booker was 10-of-20 for 31 points, he had zero assists and five turnovers.
It’s the first time Booker has played in a full game and finished with zero assists since Nov. 2021, and you have to go back to Nov. 2017 to find the last time it included five-plus turnovers, per Stathead.
Green’s 13-of-25 shooting was boosted up by a career-high eight 3s, and coming off his 14 field goals on Thursday, the 27 combined makes are the most by Green over a two-game spurt in his career, according to Stathead. We knew coming into this season that he was capable of some heaters and this first wave has been impressive. He added four assists and three turnovers.
Rookie Rasheer Fleming was the only other positive. It was an explosive nine points, four rebounds, three blocks and a steal. While he continues to make a few mistakes with positioning each game, it honestly doesn’t matter when he can put together a sequence like he did in the second quarter.
Rasheer Fleming pic.twitter.com/re5yhEOWHh
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) March 14, 2026
Khaman Maluach only played four minutes and it was 24 for Oso Ighodaro, meaning Phoenix went into small-ball for 20. Fleming reached 23 minutes, Highsmith had 19 and Ryan Dunn did not make an appearance.
It is not a coincidence that Collin Gillespie was borderline invisible offensively in these last two games when the ball and player movement was low while Booker and Green got cooking. This is not the way for Phoenix. Gillespie only got three shots up and was scoreless for the first time this season.
Toronto got 36 points from Ingram, with eight of those coming in the final four minutes. The Raptors were hunting Royce O’Neale to great success. Barrett added 22 points.
