The Suns relapsed into a ton of bad habits this game, and they were fortunate that they hung in there for 63 minutes with real chances to win.
On offense, we saw a reversion to Kokoskov's two favorite plays, which are (1) the utterly pointless weave 25 feet from the basket, which looks like a parody of a marching band drill, and (2) Ayton half-heartedly setting a screen even farther away than that, with the guard's job to then thread a perfect pass to him through heavy traffic while he's making his way through the lane. Later in the game, it was Booker playing hero ball and forcing things that simply weren't there, over and over again.
On defense, first-line defense was terrible, which was what made all of the back cuts and interior passing so effective. I don't know what the all-time record is for points in the paint, but the Wizards must have been close to it. The last number I remember hearing was in the mid-50s, and that was still in regulation. It's tempting to say that the Suns just kept forgetting about Bryant, and to a lesser extent Morris and Ariza, but the real problem was that they were committing fundamental errors early in the possession and then needing to scramble.
Unfortunately I couldn't watch the last few wins, so "getting to" watch this game turned out to be a bitter disappointment. The Suns were the better team, should have won, and know it. That's a moral victory of sorts, but it's up to them to turn that anger into better focus and discipline.
