Suns Fall To Hawks Thanks To Dreadful Shooting Night

The Phoenix Suns hoped to build some momentum before going on a five-game road trip against the Atlanta Hawks, but the Hawks had other plans for them after handing out a 132-100 beatdown on their home floor.

Trae Young and Dejounte Murray put up 20 and 21 points respectively while getting massive contributions from Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and De’Andre Hunter who combined for 50 points.

Mikal Bridges was once again the star of the show for the Suns with 23 points, but his efficiency was in shambles after only knocking down six of his 18 attempts.

Deandre Ayton was their next-best player with 20 points of his own on 9-of-12 shooting with only Dario Saric and Damion Lee being in double-digits.

Bridges’ terrible shooting night was the best example of the Suns’ terrible shooting night after only making 35 of their total 86 shots for 40.7% shooting as a team.

On the other side of the fence, the ring was as wide open as it can be with them draining 52 of their 91 attempts, good for 57.1%.

The three-point shooting stats is where it gets even more disastrous for the Suns as they shot at a dreadful four-of-28 while the Hawks were above average by making 19-of-33 from deep.

Nothing went right for the Suns at home and the starters were pulled as early as the middle of the third after Atlanta continued to hammer them on the scoreboard for a lead that went as high as 43 points.

Marksmen like Lee, Cameron Johnson, Torrey Craig, and Dario Saric only made two of their 12 attempts from behind the arc in what can only be described as a terrible night in Phoenix, Arizona.

While it would be easy to blame the Suns for their lack of defense and coughing up the ball 16 times, the Hawks simply made their shots despite whether they had a hand in their face or not while the Suns missed easily makeable shots.

Nights like these are normal in the NBA and it was bound to happen for the Suns after closing out the month of January with seven wins in eight games over the last two weeks while only winning one game between January 2 and January 16.

The Suns’ next five games consist of the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, and Brooklyn Nets, as well as a rematch with the Hawks on February 9 before ending their road trip with a visit to the Indiana Pacers on February 10.

Because of their current form, it would be within the realm of reason to expect them to go 4-1 with the lone defeat to the Boston Celtics.

In that same vein, that record could just as well be 1-4 since the Suns have been battling with consistency throughout much of the season due to injury woes.

Cameron Payne and Landry Shamet remain out indefinitely with foot issues, while the impending return of Devin Booker, expected to happen ahead of the Nets game, has fans hoping for the best.

Sitting smack-dab at the eighth seed, the Suns’ hopes of a high playoff seed are still within reach as they are only 3.5 games away from the Sacramento Kings, who are currently third in the standings.