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Grayson Allen Talks Suns Struggles after Season-High 32 Points

Grayson Allen had arguably his best game this season last night on Christmas against the Dallas Mavericks, finishing with a season-high 32 points.

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However, Phoenix ended up losing 128-114 to fall below .500 on the year at 14-15. This result marked their ninth loss in the last 12 games.

Allen led the Suns in shot attempts with 22 and tied his career-high high with eight threes on a night where the Mavericks were able to force the ball out of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant’s hands on seemingly every possession.

Luka Doncic, Allen’s primary matchup on the night, ended with an incredible 50 points, 14 assists, six rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

“It is frustrating, a night like tonight,” Allen said. “Offensively, is where I feel like where we have been lacking a little bit. I feel like we have been in some games where if we had a normal shooting night, a normal offensive night it would have been a W for us. Night like tonight, we have a pretty good all-around offensive night from everybody, and a guy scores 50. Part of that is hats off to Luka (Doncic), our gameplan was throwing different bodies, doubling, throwing different looks at him. He got hot with his step-back threes, carved us up with some passing early and it made it really difficult to guard for the rest of the game.

“I just think for our group we just have to keep playing games. I feel like every time we are out there, we are getting a little bit more together. You start to see little bits and pieces of stuff come together. We have great stretches, great quarters, we haven’t put together a 48 where we can truly say this is our identity, this is who we are. We have great stretches where you can really see it coming together. The more and more games we play, I think we are going to start to put together some 48-minute stretches where that is who we are.”

The Suns were down 15 very early in this game, but Allen, who started the night 0-for-4 brought them all the way back to taking the lead in the third quarter. He ended the third period alone with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

However, his effort was not enough in the end as the Suns faltered once again in the fourth quarter, allowing the Mavericks to shoot 68% from the floor and outscore them 37-22 in the quarter.

Allen is choosing to remain optimistic for who the Suns can be.

“We got to keep a little bit more positive energy going,” Allen said. “It is very easy to look around and be frustrated because we have the talent to win more games. I feel like we should be winning more games, but we are a new group, and we have to take the growing pains in stride and keep a positive energy. You have to be very optimistic about the flashes that we do put together because that is truly who we are and who we can be. Early on in the season, still early on in the season in December, we have been unfortunate with injuries early on. It has delayed some of the more stuff, I truly believe I am really optimistic that we keep putting minutes together out there on the court we are going to start flowing. Some positive energy through the tough losses.”

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

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