Phoenix Suns takeaways: What went wrong as Detroit Pistons roll to preseason victory

Royce O’Neale showed the most fight for the Phoenix Suns in going to the floor and wrestling the ball away from Ron Holland in the first half.

Outside of that, the Suns didn’t give the Detroit Pistons much resistance Friday night in losing their preseason home opener, 109-91, before a crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.

The Suns trailed by as many as 28 points, losing their first preseason game of the 2024-25 season. Kevin Durant led the Suns with 18 points, Bradley Beal went for 17 and Tyus Jones added 11, all in the first half.

Devin Booker sat out with right ankle soreness for precautionary reasons, Jusuf Nurkic missed a third straight game with a left middle finger injury and Grayson Allen sat with a sore Achilles.

Allen was previously listed as being out for personal reasons as he and his wife are expecting. Rookie Ryan Dunn got the start for Booker.

The Suns were without three key players in their third preseason game in six days, but fell to a rebuilding team they just beat Tuesday at Michigan State . Cade Cunningham scored a game-high 25 points while Tobias Harris delivered 22 after being inactive Tuesday against Phoenix.

Here are three takeaways as the Suns now prepare to play their fourth preseason game in eight days on Sunday at Denver.

Defensive setback

The Suns improved from Game 1 Sunday against the Lakers in Palm Desert to Tuesday’s Game 2, but took a step backward Friday, giving up 40 points in the first quarter.

The 40 points allowed came after Phoenix gave up 97 in four quarters of their eight-point victory over these same Pistons. Harris, who didn’t suit up Tuesday, feasted with 20 first-half points.

The Suns didn’t get around screens, leading to lob dunks. They didn't contest Detroit’s 3-point shots and continue to have issues defending the paint; Phoenix allowed 50 interior points.

The Pistons had 23 fast-break points as the Suns clearly weren't getting back on defense.

Nurkic’s return should shore up the half-court interior defense a little bit because they’re lacking consistent physicality inside, but the Suns were leaky with their perimeter defense Friday as well.

Dunn didn’t have the same defensive impact in the first half as Cunningham, whom he limited Tuesday night, went for 18 points in the first half Friday night.

Everyone gets got, but Dunn did compete. Can’t say that about everyone else on defense.

One-on-one again

The Suns' lack of ball movement and player movement last season led to a heavy dose of one-on-one offense. The ball has been popping so far this season — they had 30 assists Tuesday — but that was not the case Friday.

The Suns had 24 assists. Durant took more dribbles Friday than he had in the two previous games combined.

He’s one of the greatest scorers ever, the purest to ever put the ball in the basket, but the Suns weren’t creating shots for him with the pass as they did Tuesday.

Beal got it going with 15 points in the first half. He looked quick to the rim, found the range from 3 and scored off the bounce. He can do it with the best, but the Suns, at their best, are moving the ball and getting open looks.

The Pistons raised their level of physicality on defense, but the Suns lacked ball movement. They did get up 22 shots from 3 in the first half, but made only six. Phoenix lacked quality looks.

Jones finished with an uncharacteristic 3-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The rookies: Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro Game 3

They had their moments.

Oso Ighodaro and Dunn had consecutive blocks in the first half. Dunn knocked down a 3 and Ighodaro had a handful of assists, but they didn’t impact the game the way they had been.

Ighodaro didn’t score on three shot attempts while Dunn shot 1-of-6 from the field, going 1-of-5 from 3 after a 5-of-11 surge through the first two preseason games.

The Pistons made an adjustment in defending Ighodaro’s dives to the rim as one of Jones’ turnovers was trying to find the rookie big on a lob dunk. Dunn also had two turnovers trying to do too much with the pass.

They’re rookies. They learned how a team can make an adjustment to neutralize their impact on the game.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin .

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Suns takeaways: What went wrong as Detroit Pistons roll to preseason victory