Whenever the Suns take on the Lakers, drama seems to always unfold, and tonight was no exception.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!With a trip to Las Vegas on the line, the Suns stumbled out of the gate; 10 turnovers in the first quarter resulted in them trailing by 10 points early on.
This trend then continued into the second quarter. While the Suns were making their shots, there was a constant wave of bad passes and poor ball handling.
It was not until the third quarter that Phoenix made it a competitive game. The Suns came out of halftime with vengeance and quickly tied the game up after trailing by as much as 15 at one point.
From there, it was back and forth all the way through the final minute.
However, once again turnovers and a bad call made by the officials with less than 30 seconds left resulted in the Suns falling just short.
Trailing by two points, the Suns hurried over to try to force a turnover from Austin Reaves, which they did successfully as the ball rolled across the court near the basket.
Yet, somehow, a timeout signal made by LeBron James was picked up by the refs, even though no team officially had possession of the ball.
The Lakers DID NOT have possession of the ball in order to call a timeout. This absolutely is Suns basketball. pic.twitter.com/wSGw4hvFk2
— Swipa (@SwipaCam) December 6, 2023
So, instead of an easy basket to tie the game up, the Lakers maintained possession and went on to secure a win.
While it is easy to point directly at this play as to why the Suns are not moving on, they should have never been in the situation in the first place if it were not for sloppy mistakes.
Despite ending with a 49.3 FG% compared to the Lakers 37.3%, Phoenix’s 22 turnovers were ultimately the difference maker in their 106-103 loss.
Notable stat lines from both sidelines:
Kevin Durant: 31 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
Grayson Allen: 21 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
LeBron James: 31 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists
Anthony Davis: 27 points, 15 rebounds, 1 assist
