Phoenix Suns continue to wilt, fall to Dallas Mavericks on Luka Doncic's 50-point night

The Phoenix Suns are a mess right now.

They’ve gone from winning a season-high seven games in a row to losing nine of their last 12 after Dallas topped them, 128-114, Monday night before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.

The Suns (14-15) received the Luka Doncic 50-point special delivery, gift-wrapped and filled with 8-of-16 shooting from 3, 15 assists, six rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

This marks the second opponent to cook for 50 against the Suns on their home floor in a 10-day span.

Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, who played for the Mavs, dropped 50 on Dec. 15.

The Suns did get a 32-point game from Grayson Allen, who shot 8-of-17 on 3s, and a career-best 23 points and 19 rebounds from Chimezie Metu off the bench.

Eric Gordon hoisted more shots — 6-of-12 for 14 points — but their two main guys, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, combined for just 36 on 10-of-25.

To put those numbers in perspective, Doncic scored 50 on 15-of-25 in leading the Mavericks (18-12). Booker scored 20 while Durant added a season-low 16 on just 11 shot attempts.

The Suns made Derrick Jones Jr. look like a scorer as he dropped 23 points when he’s averaging 9.9 and rookie Dereck Lively II Jr. feasted off Doncic lobs in posting 20 points and 10 boards.

Phoenix is playing like a subpar defensive team that can’t protect the ball or finish games. The Mavericks shot 53.6% and scored 22 points off 16 Suns turnovers as Durant committed six of those.

Durant now has 18 total in his last three games.

Bradley Beal can’t fix all that ails the Suns when he comes back from injury. Jusuf Nurkic returns Tuesday after missing Phoenix’s last two games with a family matter, but he isn’t the cure-all, either.

Here’s what was learned from Monday’s game as the Suns were outscored, 37-22, in the fourth quarter to mark another bad finish and drop to 7-9 at home.

Frustration rising

Metu had a turnover Doncic turned into a layup to put Dallas ahead, 69-56, early in the second half.

Booker ran back, didn’t prevent the basket — but Metu didn’t attempt to do the same.

“Why aren’t you running back?” Booker shouted. “You just turn the ball over and not run back?”

That’s holding Metu accountable, but it’s also frustration, as Metu didn’t try to make up for the bad pass.

Doncic made a great play in sticking out the left hand for the initial deflection, but the Suns aren’t as connected as a team should be nearly 30 games into the season.

Injuries are a major part of it. So is a lack of chemistry, and of course the losses, but the Suns aren’t connected as a team typically should be nearly 30 games into the season.

This is a new-look roster. It would be a different story if they were winning. This would be viewed as a great job to put this roster together with the cap restraints.

This instead is a bad look for a team with championship aspirations. If the playoffs started today, the Suns would have to win two road games in the play-in just to make the playoffs as an eighth seed.

This shouldn’t happen with Booker and Durant on a team.

Gordon's shot attempts up after voicing frustration

Suns coach Frank Vogel and Gordon have talked about his recent low shot attempts as the veteran guard only got up two in Friday’s loss at Sacramento. Booker said no one took Gordon’s complaints personally.

Gordon wants more FGAs to do what he does — score.

Vogel feels him, but he defined a section of Gordon’s offensive package before Monday’s game.

"He's more of a receiver than run a bunch of plays for him," Vogel said.

In other words, score on catch-and-shoot off penetration-and-kick.

Gordon can finish in transition and off the bounce, but his offense is largely predicated on his teammates, mainly Booker and Durant.

There was one action Monday between Metu and Durant, who found Gordon on a hook pass for 3 in the second half. That very well may have been a play for Gordon.

Gordon scored eight points in the third as Phoenix outscored Dallas, 38-27, to go up 92-91 after trailing by as many as 15 points in the first half.

This does show his value, but the Suns still lost with Gordon taking 12 shots. That’s more than two from Friday and seven from last week at Portland, but Gordon’s primary role is cashing 3s.

Gordon attempted seven 3s Monday, but he made just two while Booker and Durant fired seven total.

The Suns are 9-6 when Gordon takes 10-plus shots, but that clearly doesn’t always translate to a win.

Suns balancing offensive philosophies

The Suns looked to share the ball Monday or “trust the pass” as Vogel says.

They finished with 28 assists, generated 41 attempts from 3 and also have a “return to sender” philosophy in which the ball makes its way back to the main guys to score.

Monday showed the challenge of balancing the two.

Gordon, Allen and Metu ate off “trust the pass.”

They each attempted more shots than Durant — Allen 22 FGAs, Metu 18 off the bench.

Allen and Metu combined for 55 points, which is right at the 58.6 Booker and Durant averaged going into Monday’s game.

However, can Phoenix win with role players taking more shots than Booker and Durant? They didn’t Christmas night.

Beal moving better, more fluid

Beal went through a pregame workout Monday as he was out with a right ankle sprain suffered on Dec. 15 against New York.

The three-time All-Star landed on Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo's foot on a 3-point basket early in the first quarter.

The Suns announced on Dec. 18 that Beal would “miss the next two weeks” to rehab the ankle and be re-evaluated in early January, but Vogel said if Beal can return sooner, he will.

Averaging just 14.7 points, Beal has only played in six games this season mostly due to low-back issues.

The Suns acquired him in an offseason trade that sent Chris Paul to Washington. The Wizards later moved Paul to Golden State and got Jordan Poole in return.

Beal is moving better now than before when his back was the main concern.

Team owner supporting Vogel, Suns

Vogel was asked pregame about what Mat Ishbia says to him after games.

“Win the next game,” Vogel said with a laugh.

He continued by saying Ishbia has been “incredibly supportive” amid this 3-9 slump.

Going to get harder and harder for Ishbia to remain positive if his team keeps this up.

Ishbia attended Monday’s game as he sat with close friend and former Michigan State national championship teammate, Mateen Cleaves, who also works for his United Wholesale Mortgage.

Up next: Wednesday at Houston

This will be the first of four matchups against the Rockets (15-12), who are eighth in the West under new head coach Ime Udoka.

Houston has five players averaging double figures with Alperen Şengün posting a career-high 20.4 points.

The Rockets host Indiana on Tuesday so their game against Phoenix will be the second of a back-to-back.

One final thing

That Doncic is a bad, bad man.

Dropped 50 and 15 against multiple defenses starting with doubles and blitzes.

This is without Kyrie Irving, who is sidelined with a heel injury.

The Suns had negative answers for the MVP candidate.

Career 10K points and counting.

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.

Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What we learned: Suns continue to wilt, fall to Luka Doncic, Mavs