Four days after Lauri Markkanen lit up the Phoenix Suns for a career-high 51 points, the Utah Jazz forward gets another crack at the Suns on Friday in the first night of NBA Cup play.
The Jazz claimed a 138-134 overtime victory on Monday in Salt Lake City, so Friday’s rematch in Phoenix represents a chance for the Suns to get even while snapping a four-game losing streak.
The Suns will find Markkanen has hardly cooled since their first meeting. He piled up 32 points, three steals and three blocked shots in the Jazz’s 136-134 home loss to Portland on Wednesday and averages 34.0 points per game, which ranks fifth in the league. He’s shooting 50.6% from the field and 40% from 3-point range.
The Suns are recovering from a 114-113 home loss to Memphis, which won on Ja Morant’s 11-foot floater with 7.4 seconds remaining. The Grizzlies also won because they turned 21 Suns turnovers into 37 points.
“It’s a bad pass, bad catch, bad spacing,” Suns first-year coach Jordan Ott said of the turnovers. ” … Give them a little credit, but we have to be better than that.”
The Suns are averaging 17.2 turnovers per game, tied for third-highest in the league, and are shooting only 44.3% from the field, fifth-lowest in the league, in the early stages of adjusting to Ott’s up-tempo style.
“Our transition defense led to about 30-something points for them,” said Suns center Mark Williams, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds in his first start while being slow-played early because of an injury history. “You cut that in half, the game looks totally different.”
Williams has double-doubles in the last two games and he was one of four Suns with a double-double Monday against Utah (25 points, 11 rebounds) along with Devin Booker (34 points, 10 assists), Royce O’Neale (17 points, 13 rebounds) and Collin Gillespie (15 points, 13 assists). O’Neale has hit 11 3-pointers in the last two games.
The Jazz broke a 10-game losing streak against the Suns in the first meeting, when they blew a 7-point lead with 18.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter but overcame a three-point deficit with two minutes remaining in overtime.
Utah trailed Portland 117-98 after three quarters Wednesday and could not catch up. The Blazers scored 44 points in the paint in the first three quarters, which inspired coach Will Hardy to give young guards Elijah Harkless and Cody Williams their first extended minutes of the season in a fourth-quarter comeback.
Harkless and Williams each played 11:56 in the fourth and, while neither put up big counting stats, Harkless posted a +17 plus/minus rating and Williams finished at +15.
“We have way too many guys who, tonight in the first three quarters, just did not do their jobs and did not compete at a high-enough level,” Hardy said after the game. “I’ve talked in the last couple of years about the difference between a survival instinct and a killer instinct. We have to channel that much more than we did tonight and reward the guys who played well.”
Dillon Brooks (groin) has missed the Suns’ last two games, and his status is unknown. Jalen Green (hamstring) has not played this season, but he was listed as questionable Wednesday and appears close to returning.
Utah guard Isaiah Collier (hamstring) has been cleared to play and was to join the G League Salt Lake City Stars on Friday.
The Western and Eastern divisions are divided into three groups for NBA Cup play. The Suns and Jazz are in West Group A along with defending league champion Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Sacramento.
The five teams in each group all play each other in a round-robin format in the NBA Cup, then each group winner will advance to the knockout round Dec. 9-10. The runner-up with the best record from each conference will also advance to round out the field of eight teams. The Cup Final is Dec. 16 in Las Vegas.
