The Phoenix Suns, after earning their way in through the Play-In, opened their postseason on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It went about how you would expect. The game was never close, as Oklahoma City handled business and rolled to a 119-84 win.
There were issues everywhere you looked. The Thunder dominated the possession battle, outscoring Phoenix 34-2 on points off turnovers. They added 18-2 in fast break points, 52-24 in the paint, and 40-24 in bench scoring. The Suns shot 34.9%
from the field and turned it over 17 times, while Oklahoma City had six turnovers.
Devin Booker led Phoenix with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Dillon Brooks had 18, and Jalen Green added 17. Brooks and Green combined to go 12-of-38 (32%) from the field. Nothing came easy. The Suns could not find it from deep, and when they tried to attack inside, the Thunder were waiting. Oklahoma City finished with seven blocks, controlling the paint on both ends.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 25 points, 15 of those at the line. Jalen Williams added 22 points, seven rebounds, and six assists as Oklahoma City took Game 1.
Phoenix now trails the series 0-1, with Game 2 set for Wednesday, back in Oklahoma City.
Game Flow
First Half
The news came about an hour before tipoff that the Phoenix Suns would once again be without Mark Williams, which meant another start for Oso Ighodaro.
Phoenix opened on a 5-0 run, but the early possessions felt loose. Turnovers crept in right away, the kind that live in the middle of the floor and turn into easy points the other way. The Oklahoma City Thunder cashed in, pushing in transition and flipping those mistakes into quick buckets.
Dillon Brooks brought the expected edge. With 7:04 left in the first quarter, after a turnover, he swiped at the ball and caught Chet Holmgren across the face. The whistle came quick. Flagrant foul, penalty 1.
With 6:47 left in the first quarter, the Thunder were already at the line. Meanwhile, the Suns were still waiting for a whistle to go their way. It fed into a 9-0 run for OKC, and before Phoenix could settle in, they were staring at a double-digit deficit.
The offense went cold in a hurry. Phoenix had 8 straight misses. That opened the door for a 17-2 Thunder run in the middle of the quarter, and the lead kept climbing.
Phoenix finished the quarter with 4 turnovers, and those turned into 8 points for Oklahoma City. Every mistake had a consequence. The Thunder also lived in the paint, piling up 18 points inside. After that early 5- 0 start, the Suns were outscored 35-15 the rest of the way.
Devin Booker had 8 in the quarter. Jalen Green added 6. On the other side, Chet Holmgren poured in 13, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander chipped in 8.
After one, Phoenix trailed 35-20.
The second quarter opened with a flagrant on the Oklahoma City Thunder, as Isaiah Hartenstein caught Royce O’Neale in the face. Two free throws and the ball. And of course, Royce split the pair.
Another run came from the Oklahoma City Thunder, this one an 8-0 burst while Devin Booker sat, and the Phoenix Suns were a -8 in that stretch. Booker checked back in around the nine-minute mark, but the run kept going. It grew to 12-0 before Phoenix could make a shot. The offense never found a rhythm. The Suns went 3-of-20 from the field across the end of the first and into the second, and the Thunder’s lead pushed out to 25.
We did see some Khaman Maluach minutes in the second, although he was part of the Thunder offensive onslaught and was a -6 during his time on the court.
Dillon Brooks gave you that familiar stretch in the second quarter, the one where most of it makes you nod, and a small part makes you pause. He knocked down a three and drew the foul, finished the four-point play, trimmed the deficit to 20, brought a little life back into it. Then the next trip down, he reached in on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and picked up his third. That’s the full Dillon Brooks experience, all packed into two possessions.
There were not many bright spots for the Phoenix Suns in that half, but Oso Ighodaro was fighting on the interior. He grabbed 9 rebounds before the break, 7 of them on the offensive glass, creating second chances that were hard to come by everywhere else.
The Oklahoma City Thunder took the second quarter 30-24 and carried control into halftime. They shot 48.9% from the field, while Phoenix managed 30.4%. The damage showed up inside and from mistakes. Points in the paint were 32-12, and points off turnovers sat at 21-2.
At the half, the Suns trailed 65-44.
Second Half
The second half opened with the kind of update you never want to hear. Jordan Goodwin, who had left earlier and was moving a little gingerly, was ruled out with a calf injury. It is a familiar one. That same calf has bothered him throughout the season, and it cost him time late in the year.
Phoenix came out of the half with better intent on offense. The looks were there. The problem stayed the same as the shots did not fall. They opened 3-of-9 from the field and missed all four attempts from deep, every one of them uncontested.
Head coach Jordan Ott went to his second challenge early in the third on a play where it looked like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knocked the ball off Devin Booker. The challenge worked. The funny part, Ott was not even trying to challenge. He was asking for a 30 second timeout. Marc Davis, the lead official, heard something else and triggered it.
For a stretch, the Phoenix Suns held their ground. They traded baskets with the Oklahoma City Thunder through the first part of the quarter, even edging them 19-18. Then it flipped again. Oklahoma City closed the third on a 14-3 run, capped by another buzzer beating three, the second time they hit one to end a quarter.
Booker had 10 in the period, going 3-of-6 from the field. The rest of the group went 5-of-12, and Dillon Brooks was 2-of-7. On the other side, SGA put up 10 points. Only one field goal. He lived at the line, going 8-of-9.
The Thunder took the quarter 32-22. Going into the fourth, it was 97-66.
The gap kept stretching early in the fourth as the Phoenix Suns still could not buy a shot. The deficit climbed to 34, and with about 7 minutes left, the bench was emptied. And then, right on cue, Rasheer Fleming came in and knocked down two corner threes like he had been waiting all night for that exact moment.
That was about it as far as highlights go. Phoenix scored 18 in the fourth and lose by 34.
Up Next
The Suns and Thunder will be back at it on Wednesday at 6:30pm on ESPN. We shall see you then.
