Over the past 10 days, the Phoenix Suns have subjected themselves to four straight losses and five in six games. You can blame injuries or just state ‘it happens’, but the fact is they ran an exemplary 15-6 record down to 16-11 mostly due to a completely forgetting how to play defense.
First: context.
The Suns have not experienced 5 losses in a 10-day span since before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world (that team also had Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, Deandre Ayton, Cameron Johnson and Dario Saric). Led by Ricky Rubio at point, they suffered losing streaks of 8, 4 and 4 on their way to a 26-39 record when the NBA shut shuttered for four months before resuming in the Bubble in Orlando.