One hundred twenty points should force a closer examination of everything that happened after the ball changed hands. Phoenix still lost 127-120 to Denver on Friday, despite making 18 three-pointers, scoring 50 points in the paint and taking 14 more shots than the Nuggets. The Suns did not lose because their offense ran out of ideas.
They lost because Denver made its own chances unusually valuable, then kept reaching the foul line while Phoenix mostly watched from it.
Jamal Murray and Christian Braun supplied the most obvious explanation. Murray scored 39 points on 10-of-18 shooting and made 7 of 9 from three-point range. Braun added 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting, also going 7 of 9 from beyond the arc.
Between them came 14 of Denver’s 20 threes. That is an extraordinary shooting night, and it overwhelmed a Phoenix offense that was productive by almost any ordinary standard.
Denver shot 53% overall and 54% from three. Phoenix shot 49% and collected 15 offensive rebounds, while its 15 team-inclusive turnovers were fewer than Denver’s 19. The Suns had useful advantages in volume and possession. Murray and Braun’s accuracy nevertheless kept turning Denver’s smaller supply of field-goal attempts into a larger score.
The fourth quarter made the pattern easy to see without requiring a grand theory. Phoenix had cut Denver’s lead to 103-98 when Collin Gillespie hit a three-pointer with 10:03 remaining. Murray answered with a three at 9:21, and Aaron Gordon’s pull-up jumper at 8:58 pushed Denver ahead 108-98.
Devin Booker’s three at 7:21 reduced the deficit to six. Murray’s next score, a two-point step-back jumper at 6:54, restored a 113-105 Denver advantage.
That sequence does not prove every Phoenix defensive decision was wrong. It does show how little room Denver’s shooting left the Suns. Phoenix kept scoring, but the Nuggets repeatedly answered with a basket that carried greater value.
Miles Bridges’ two-point finish at 6:01 brought the Suns within six, and he later made a three at 4:13. Jordan Goodwin hit a three at 1:13 and another with 9.7 seconds left, trimming Denver’s lead to five before the final free throws. Phoenix was still producing; it was simply producing into a scoreboard that charged a premium for every Denver response.
Gillespie deserved a more substantial place in the explanation than a footnote beside Booker’s 20 points on 7-of-19 shooting. He finished with 16 points, four threes and 10 assists against two turnovers. His fourth-quarter contribution included the three at 10:03, a driving floater at 8:33, an assist to Bridges for the basket at 6:01 and the pass that set up Goodwin’s three at 1:13.
That is genuine organization and secondary creation. It helped Phoenix reach 120; it did not solve the defensive burden created by Denver’s shotmaking.
