The injured Raptors lose their 40th game to begin a four-game road trip.
Observing from the sidelines with his left hand bandaged due to a finger injury, Scottie Barnes was powerless to prevent his exhausted Raptors from suffering another defeat in the Valley of the Sun.
The injury-plagued squad gave a heroic effort to start a four-game road trip against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, but the Raptors ultimately lost 120-113.
With three perennial all-stars in their starting lineup, the win-now Suns never trailed.
Devin Booker, who has missed the previous three games due to a sprained right ankle, was not with them. His absence made no difference. The Suns jumped out to an early double-digit lead in the first quarter thanks to seven three-pointers from Grayson Allen. With 26 points at the end of the game, Allen leads the NBA in three-pointers made this season.
Allen remarked, “I got hot on the first few and then guys started looking for me.”
Although the Raptors were unable to stop Allen, coach Darko Rajakovic stated that his squad was not surprised by Allen’s performance.
“Our rotations were delayed,” Rajakovic remarked. “We just didn’t follow through on our well-laid out plan to close out on Grayson Allen.” Examining the movie and drawing lessons from it will be beneficial for us.
After the Suns had taken a sizable lead again in the third quarter, the Raptors rallied to trim the gap to three points in the final two minutes of the period and restore some credibility to the game in the fourth. Phoenix, who is infamous for throwing away large pillows, didn’t falter this time.
Bradley Beal contributed 20 points, while Kevin Durant scored 35 for the Suns.
Rajakovic noted that there were a few encouraging aspects despite the defeat and a lack of concentration in the opening quarter.
