LAS VEGAS – Rookie Oso Ighodaro offered up ways for the Phoenix Suns to clean up their play from Saturday’s 17-point loss to Golden State going into Tuesday’s matchup against Indiana in NBA Summer League play.
“I think we can play harder, play more connected, be better defensively, share the ball a little bit more,” the Desert Vista grad said after Monday’s practice in Las Vegas. “Those are the main areas.”
That’s the overall breakdown of their 90-73 loss in which the Suns trailed the Warriors by as many as 25 points. Phoenix turned the ball over 19 times which led to 23 Golden State points and shot 18.8% from 3 (6-of-32).
Suns assistant coach Vince Legarza boiled the loss down to a handful of minutes when the game got away from them. Legarza is working as head coach of the summer league team.
“Looking back at the film, it’s why film is a great teacher for all of us,” he said. “I think we played really hard for 36 minutes. There was a lapse at the end of the third quarter where I think our guys got frustrated, which is normal. Shots weren’t falling.”
The Suns trailed, 68-55 with 53.5 seconds left in the third before yielding a 6-0 burst to trail by 19 points going into the fourth. The Suns had two turnovers in this stretch.
“We kind of went inward and that’s not how this group is going to have success,” Legarza continued. “So, we owned it, we were honest with each other about it and what we’re going to do moving forward. Other parts of the game, I thought we actually got really good looks and missed shots and that’s life. Give credit to the Warriors, they did a good job, but cleaning up our running habits, cleaning up some little details in how we run, how we get into stuff and keeping our effort more consistent for 40 minutes.”
Tuesday's game starts at 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) and will be televised on ESPNU. This will be the first of a back-to-back as the Suns play Oklahoma City on Wednesday, at 5 p.m., on NBA TV.
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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