Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
When you think of the Suns, you would guess that they would at least be average when it comes to the fourth quarter.
In the past eight losses, four of those games have come when the Suns had the lead heading into the fourth quarter. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but when you actually look under the surface, some numbers are painful to see.
The Suns have the worst fourth-quarter point differential in the NBA for the season. According to Statmuse, the Suns are -131 in point differential in the fourth – 32 points worse than the second-worst team.
“Just play to our strengths as individuals,” Durant said recently. “We’ve had some solid fourth quarters, it was us driving closeouts, coming down, making quick decisions, getting into our offense a little earlier in the shot clock. We gotta lean on that type of stuff. [If] we play a little bit faster but under control in the fourth, it’s about to turn for us. We got some spurts, solid play in the fourth, but we definitely have to be better.”
In a close game against the Grizzlies during the fourth quarter, Nurkic has the ball on the left wing, while he waits for Allen to run an off-ball screen on Durant’s defender (Marcus Smart) allowing Durant to back cut to the rim. Smart doesn’t even bite on the screen and instead reads the play quickly and intercepts the overhead pass by Nurkic.
Suns head coach Frank Vogel has a glass-half-full outlook and doesn’t seem too concerned.
“Guys learning each other,” Vogel said recently. “It’s a new group, and when the pressure rises in the fourth, that’s when the connectivity exposes itself the most. We’ve made some progress in that area. Had a lot of good looks down the stretch, in and outs, missed layups, extra passes we could have made. We’re trying to establish a way of life, how we play offensive basketball. It’s been there in stretches for us, but not consistently enough, so it’s part of the cohesion process.”
Vogel has been preaching patience and talking about his guys needing to stay healthy and getting more reps together for their chemistry to gel. With their Big Three only playing a handful of games together, it makes sense.
Both Durant and Vogel are right. There have been moments in the fourth where they do look like they’re in sync and seem like their offense is impossible to stop, but then they seem to lose focus and play too much iso.
Who knows? In a month, all this talk could be moot if the three stars manage to stay healthy and start getting more reps in. But as of now, these are the aspects that the Suns need to shore up if they want to make a run in the playoffs.
