Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns 'frustrated,' fall to Deandre Ayton, Portland Trail Blazers

Injuries are one thing, and they’ve certainly plagued the Phoenix Suns.

They still have more than half the season to play, but right now, this feels like a frustrated team that has a growing number of issues and is struggling to find the answers.

If it isn’t one thing, it’s something else – or more of the same.

The Suns (14-13) are 10th in the West after a 109-104 loss in which they had a 15-point lead early in the second after being up 16 in the first half but still lost Tuesday night to the Blazers (7-19) before a crowd of 18,233 at Moda Center.

In its last three games, Phoenix gave up a season-high 139 points in a home loss to the Knicks, avoided a "bad loss" to the Wizards, as Chimezie Metu put it, and fell to the young, and slumping Blazers.

Kevin Durant scored a game-high 40 points while Devin Booker seemed to fall back into that shooting slump in going 11-of-25 for 26 points.

Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant scored 23 and 22 points, respectively, to lead the Blazers while Deandre Ayton posted 16 points and 15 rebounds against his former team.

Simons’ jumper over Grayson Allen with 10.7 seconds sealed the victory for Portland to snap a seven-game losing skid.

Here’s what we learned from Wednesday’s loss as the Suns are 3-7 in their last 10 games with Durant and Booker on the team.

Huh?

Frustration in the air

Suns coach Frank Vogel said he told his team after the game to stay positive and it’s a long season.

Sounds nice, but his players are upset with not only losing, but how they’re losing.

Squandering leads. Stagnant offense. Defensive lapses. Turnovers.

Check out the postgame reactions.

Booker: “Frustrating.”

Eric Gordon: “We just need to be more real with ourselves into having an unselfish mindset going into games.”

Add a head shake to Gordon’s comments.

Jusuf Nurkic: “We've got to find a way. At the end of the day, we've shown what we're capable of. Whatever we have to do to make it right.”

Drew Eubanks: "We just got away from what was working. What was working was recovering for each other, we were moving the ball."

Nassir Little shared the same sentiments.

This season is going way left of script in part because the Suns feel they’re better than this, but right now, the Suns are playing like an average team that is upset and questioning itself.

They keep talking about preparing for the playoffs, but that's four months away.

The here and now isn't looking so good.

Too much iso?

Durant and Booker are great 1-on-1 players and can score on anybody on all three levels, but that ability is supposed to lead to open shots, too.

It does, but still.

Sometimes, it looks like the other four guys are just watching instead of moving or further spacing so they can get open looks created by the gravity Durant and Booker create.

Then there are times Booker is holding the ball for like 10 seconds waiting on God knows what.

Durant doesn’t want to launch 28 shots. Booker can’t take 25 to get 26 in this offense.

After the game, Booker said the Suns have some “figuring out to do on that side of the ball” while Durant said they must get to their actions quicker.

“Whatever we do, we got to get into it without putting too much pressure on ourselves late in the clock," he said. "Whatever action we in, we try to get into it with 15, 16, 14 on the clock as opposed to 10, 8 on the clock.”

He essentially said the same thing after the narrow win Sunday over the four-win Wizards, too.

Defense is a concern and will be addressed in the next segment, but this team should never have a 20-point quarter like it did in the third Tuesday in being outscored 38-20.

Allen and Little both said the Blazers switching one through five slowed down the offense.

You’d think that would create mismatches and it’s a matter of finding them, but the Suns' default has been when things get tight, go to Booker or Durant, space the floor and watch them go iso.

Sometimes the spacing is off, and sometimes there’s no ball movement or player movement, but you wonder if the offense, even with Bradley Beal, is going to be plenty iso and the success of it will be predicated on Durant, Booker and Beal taking – and making tough shots.

Hard to consistently win with that formula even with three proven shotmakers.

Defense continues allowing open 3s

The Blazers came into the game shooting 34.2% from 3 and averaging 12 made 3s on 35.04 attempts.

Not the worst, but close to it as they’re 25^th in the league in 3-point percentage. So how do the Suns allow Portland to shoot 14-of-28 from deep?

Simons’ attack mode led to the Suns blitzing him, a move that opened the backside 3 Malcolm Brogdon cashed in on with 4-of-9 shooting, scoring 14 points off the bench.

The Blazers got open 3s outside of that, though.

Grant just walked into a one with no one within five feet of him and Booker’s reaction suggests either he was supposed to pick him up or someone else.

After the morning shootaround, Eubanks talked about simplifying the defensive coverage schemes.

So, before Tuesday’s game, I asked Vogel about that idea. Not happening.

“We have to build a system that's going to win for us in the playoffs,” Vogel said. “We want it to be simple enough that it can be executed, but we have to build throughout the course of the season.”

The problem is a combination of not completely figuring out the scheme, not playing with consistent effort on defense, not always executing the game plan and maybe just lacking guys who can defend.

Blazers needed Ayton, but got even more in Camara

Ayton won the individual matchup against Jusuf Nurkic – and the game.

He downplayed beating his former team, saying the Suns are just “another team,” but it’s also the team Ayton helped reach the 2021 finals and set a franchise record for wins the following season.

Don’t let Ayton fool you, but he outworked Nurkic, who finished with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting and 13 rebounds.

Ayton was the aggressor as he took 18 shots. Made only six, but an aggressive Ayton is better than one who takes just four shots and is watching more than engaging.

However, Toumani Camara is helping set an aggressive, defensive tone Blazers coach Chauncey Billups loves to the point he’s having the rookie guard the opponent’s best offensive weapons.

He wound up checking Booker and Durant, something he did in the offseason.

Now Camara didn’t play one second in the fourth quarter.

Billups isn’t quite ready to consistently have him out there in winning time, but said the Blazers fought to have Camara part of the three-team deal that sent Damian Lillard to Milwaukee and Ayton to Portland, with Nukic coming to Phoenix.

Vogel fought to keep Camara, who the Suns drafted earlier this year, but he said, “you got to give up something good to get something good.”

Camara was strong in summer league, has great athleticism that he put on full display on his chase-down block on Little’s layup and follow-up dunk off an Ayton miss.

He competes hard and doesn’t back down from challenges. No guarantees he would’ve played for Phoenix, but when considering the injuries and his talent, odds say he gets minutes.

One last thing: 14-0 run changed game

Little put the Suns up 64-49 on a 3 off Durant’s extra pass.

Durant clenched his fist. Showed Little some love.

This felt like an opportunity for Phoenix to blow the game open, but Portland responded with a 14-0 run.

The Suns were in trouble.

That final score is deceiving. Portland shouldn’t have even needed Simons to deliver late.

The Blazers were up 11 with 1:59 remaining in the game.

Young team, but Phoenix shouldn’t be just a game above .500, either when considering the talent they have on its roster starting with Booker and Durant.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What we learned from Suns' bad loss to Blazers; now 3-7 last 10 games