Final: Lowly Suns get absolutely pasted by lowly Sixers

The Phoenix Suns had a chance to make a two-game winning streak happen against one of the worst teams in the NBA, a night after blasting the Pacers by 20 points.

The Philadelphia 76ers, coming off a pasting by the Wolves, put one on the Suns instead.

The closest the Suns got was a 17-16 deficit mid-first quarter. From then on, the Sixers started making all their shots and the Suns started missing all of theirs.

In the end, the Suns found themselves down nearly 30 points as they played all their rookies Derrick Jones Jr., Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss and Tyler Ulis along with Alan Williams to close out the loss. If you squint and replace Jones with Troy Williams, you’ve got the Suns SL squad playing a couple minutes in an NBA game.

Eric Bledsoe had a good night, with 20 first-half points and 5 more in the third before the Sixers pulled away.

Alan Williams got his second straight double double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Tyler Ulis had 9 points, 5 assists, 4 steals and 4 rebounds. Chriss made a couple garbage time threes. Dragan Bender had a couple nice plays, one on each end.

Bledsoe finished with 27 points and 6 assists, but was less than great on the defensive end.

That’s three really bad losses by the Suns in the last eight days, to the Nets, Nuggets and now the Sixers.

Final score: Sizers 120, Suns 105.

First half

Is there really a good way to recap that first half?

No, there’s not.

Philly made shots. The Suns didn’t.

Philly’s 7’2” center Joel Embiid made three threes in the first quarter. The Suns as a team made one, and refused to defend Embiid’s attempts. Embiid takes about 5 seconds to release his shot, but neither Alex Len nor Alan Williams would come out close enough to defend him.

The Process had 17 points in his first seven minutes.

Philly’s Sergio Rodriguez blew by Bledsoe more than once to get into the paint and scramble the Suns defense.

Have you gotten the hint the Suns defense is bad?

Nik Stauskas made all four shots he took, including three three-pointers. Including a fallaway, with two defenders in his face, throw at the rim with the shot clock winding down three pointer to give the Sixers a 10-point lead on their last possession of the half.

Overall, the Suns gave up 58 first half points to the WORST OFFENSE IN THE LEAGUE.

Let me repeat. The Suns gave up 58 first half points to the WORST OFFENSE IN THE LEAGUE.

The Suns only scored 48 points themselves.

Bright spots:

• Eric Bledsoe exploded for 20 points in the first half (on 17 first half shots), along with 4 assists against only two turnovers.
• Tyler Ulis paired with Bledsoe for 9 first-half minutes and filled the stat sheet himself: 3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and no turnovers.

That’s about it.

Second half

Down 10 points. On the second night of a back-to-back. A comeback can’t happen right?

Right.

The Sixers really had it going, just like the lowly Nets had it going a week ago. Both on Saturday nights too.

This really isn’t a very good Suns team.

By the end of the third quarter it was a 19-point lead for the Sixers as Nik Stauskas ballooned up to 21 points on 8/9 shooting. Sauce Castillo really loves playing the Suns. He looks like Steph Curry against the Suns. And like a D-Leaguer against most everyone else.

Watson’s team didn’t even really play the rest of the game. Dropped passes. Got blocked. Missed free throws. Gave up open layups. Missed wide open shot after wide open shot.

The Sixers, with the worst offense in the league, made 17 of 34 three-pointers against the lowlier Suns.

Turrible.