Shorthanded Suns Fall to Kings

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns fell to the Sacramento Kings in a 114-106 loss on Friday night at the Footprint Center, dropping them to 12-10 on the year thus far. Phoenix has now lost four of their last five games.

Without Kevin Durant, Grayson Allen or Bradley Beal due to injury, the Suns rolled out a starting lineup of Devin Booker, Eric Gordon, Josh Okogie, Keita Bates-Diop and Jusuf Nurkic.

As expected, Booker paced the Suns with 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Gordon was next in scoring with 19 while Nurkic had 15 with nine rebounds.

Phoenix (as expected) missed the secondary scoring prowess of Durant, which failed to be replicated from either Bates-Diop or Okogie, as the two combined for just five points on the night. Okogie went 0-5 shooting from the field.

It was a game that featured plenty of lead changes through the vast majority of the night before Sacramento eventually ran away with the score in the final minutes of action.

Both squads held double digit leads on the night.

Kings guard De'Aaron Fox paved the way for Sacramento's third consecutive win over the Suns with a strong 34 points, four rebounds and seven assists. This is Fox's fourth 30+ point outing in his last six games.

Prior to the game, Suns coach Frank Vogel touched on Fox's impact on the floor, which helps other teammates around him:

“It’s not just De’Aaron (Fox), obviously it starts with De’Aaron, he’s one of the fastest guys in the league and he’s a load to try and slow down with his shiftiness. You got to bring multiple defenders to him, so it starts with him, but their ability to run and shoot threes, their ability to have (Domantas) Sabonis rebound and push himself with four shooters running with him, all are great concerns in slowing them down in transition.”

Typically a good free-throw shooting team, the Suns shot an abysmal 65.2% from the stripe. They were also outrebounded 50-40 on the glass.

Phoenix returns to action on Tuesday to battle the Golden State Warriors.