Suns Strokes: Phoenix fails to protect home court against Pistons

PHOENIX — Protecting home court. It’s been somewhat of a struggle — OK, it has been a struggle for the Phoenix Suns here early in the 2014-15 season.

Sure, there have been a couple of good wins (Golden State and San Antonio), but there have been far more bad losses, like losing to Charlotte, Miami and Orlando — three sub-.500 teams that all left US Airways Center with victories.

You can now add Detroit to that list.

In what is easily the worst loss of the season, and perhaps the most embarrassing, the Suns lost to the Pistons, 105-103 in front of 17,007 on Friday.

With the win, Detroit (4-19) snapped a 13-game losing streak, winning for only the second time on the road this season and the first time in Phoenix since Feb. 24, 2008.

The Suns are now 6-6 at home and 12-12 overall after dropping their season-high fourth game in a row.

Andre Drummond (23 points, 14 rebounds) and Josh Smith (12 points, 11 rebounds) posted double-doubles for the Pistons, who placed six players in double figures.
Seven Suns players hit double figures in scoring, including all five starters. Goran Dragic led the way with 18, Markieff Morris 17, Eric Bledsoe and PJ Tucker 16 and Miles Plumlee 10.

Three times in the final two minutes the Suns pulled to within a point, but failed to recapture the lead.

THE GOOD

Quick start for Plumlee, who in the game’s first five minutes scored eight points with one rebound, one assist and two blocks. He took seven of the Suns’ 11 shots, making four, including a pair of dunks, both of which came during a 10-2 run and a 16-9 lead at 6:23.

After totaling a season-low seven fastbreak points against Miami, the Suns exploded for 12 in the first quarter. Helping push the pace: Dragic, who scored eight of the 12 fastbreak points. The Suns finished with 29 total fastbreak points.

Trailing 48-41 in the second quarter, the Suns went on an 11-2 run with Marcus Morris accounting for nine of the 11 points. He scored six and assisted on an Bledsoe 3-point shot.

Big third quarter for Markieff Morris. He scored six of the Suns’ last eight points with a 14-foot jumper, a seven-foot jumper and a pair of free throws. The older Morris twin finished the quarter with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including one 3-pointer.

In his first action since missing eight games due to a right ankle bruise, Isaiah Thomas scored 10 points (3-of-11 FG) in 28 minutes of action off the bench.

THE BAD

If it weren’t for Drummond, the Pistons may have been dead and buried in the first quarter. His stat line after the opening 12 minutes: 12 points (6-of-9 FG), eight rebounds (five offensive), one assist and one block. The point total surpassed his season average (11.3).

The Pistons closed the first quarter on an 11-3 run to tie the game at 28. The last five points were scored in the final three seconds: Brandon Jennings hit a 3, Josh Smith stole the inbound pass and nailed a 3 of his own. The Pistons scored 10 points off of five Suns’ turnovers in the opening 12 minutes.

During one stretch of the second quarter, Bledsoe made two straight layups. Just one problem: They were the Suns’ only made field goals, separated by nearly four-and-a-half minutes. Between the baskets, the Suns missed six shots and turned the ball over twice.

For a team that ranked 30th out of 30 teams in shooting (40.4), the Pistons shot 47.6 percent, including a blistering 57.9 percent (11-of-19) in the fourth quarter, when they outscored the Suns, 30-27.

The Pistons outrebounded the Suns, 47-37, including 13-10 on the offensive end and held a 60-52 advantage in points in the paint. It’s the fifth time the Suns surrendered 60 or more points in the paint and comes on the heels of Miami’s 58 points in the paint performance on Tuesday.

STAT OF THE GAME

105: The number of Pistons’ points, setting a new season-high for a team that entered the game ranked second-to-last in the league in scoring (92.8)

HE SAID IT

“We got to man up, point blank period. There’s no running around it. It is what it is,” said Tucker, who finished a rebound shy of his first double-double of the season. “We’ve got to stop looking for excuses. Stop looking at the standings. None of that matters. We’re taking losses at home that we shouldn’t take; and at the end of the day, it’s on us, every single one of us, me included. We’ve got to look at each other in the face and come back and fight. We’ve got to fight. We’re not out of it. It’s early.”

NOTED

The game featured 19 lead changes, 12 coming in the second half

Suns allowed 5-0, 5-0 and 4-0 quarter-ending runs in the first three quarters of the game

Thomas’ streak of consecutive made free throws ended at 50 when he missed his third attempt of the game with 4:16 to play in the fourth quarter

UP NEXT

A brief trip out of town.

The Suns make a quick stop in Oklahoma City to play the Thunder on Sunday, Dec. 14. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

The Suns have won two straight in the series after winning the final two of three meetings last season to take the season series for the first time since 2008-09.

On March 6 of last season, Gerald Green scored a career-high 41 points, tied for the most by a Sun against the Thunder/Sonics since Tom Chambers scored a franchise-record 60 points on March 24, 1990.

The Thunder have won 11 of the last 13 against the Suns with Phoenix snapping a series-long 11-game skid in the series last season.

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