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Phoenix Suns start slow, fail to recover in blowout home loss to Hawks

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Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray (5) dunks over Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Phoenix

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PHOENIX — Every now and then you’ll come across a basketball game that denies us its beautiful complexities. There is no big, blinking, light-up arrow pointing at a specific, layered aspect of the game.

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Ultimately, the Hawks on Wednesday night played well and the Suns did not. Atlanta had better defensive energy and made far more shots

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“You have games like that but I thought the start of the game, if you just go to the first possession, we couldn’t find Dejounte (Murray) for the first 3 of the game,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said.

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“We had five guys on one side of the court, one guy by their bench. That was pretty much the game dictator. They were a lot faster than us, especially in transition, and we just couldn’t make a shot tonight for whatever reason.”

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 He didn’t do much in the first quarter, which normally isn’t to a huge detriment of the Suns, but Phoenix’s prioritization of Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges didn’t yield nearly as many positive results as Monday’s win

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When Paul exits and the second unit doesn’t have much pop either, though, that leads us to end products like Wednesday when the Hawks were up 20 midway through the second quarter.

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Ayton and Bridges still had strong nights, and some of that was from the first quarter. The complete package offensively, however, just didn’t flow. And the Suns’ defense was ill prepared for this type of Hawks effort with both moving the ball and shooting it at a high clip.

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The Hawks entered the night 29th in the amount of their field goals that are assisted and wound up with 18 of their 27 baskets assisted in the first half, an excellent mark. They finished with 32 assists and the Suns had 32 made baskets.

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The 3-point shooting was a ridiculous 45-point swing, the one part of the stat sheet you can spotlight to my aforementioned point. The Hawks were 19-of-33 (57.6%) while the Suns were 4-of-28 (14.3%).

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It was another defensive performance from the Suns that included plenty of miscommunication and a constant effort to have conversations afterward to try to clean it up..

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The Suns’ first game back home won’t be until Valentine’s Day, and that could be the case for Devin Booker as well. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday Booker’s return from a now-19-game absence due to a left groin strain could come as soon as Tuesday.

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While the Hawks loss will be dispiriting for some, the Suns are still a game over .500 and have won six of their last eight games.

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A stretch like that without Booker didn’t seem remotely feasible. Reinforcements are on the way soon, and it’s just a matter of how well they can continue to tread water until those bodies arrive.

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