The Suns suffered a 48-point loss to the Spurs Wednesday. Feb 7, 2018; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Brandon Paul (3) handles the ball against the Phoenix Suns in the second half at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

It has not been a good year for the Phoenix Suns. They entered Wednesday night’s home game against the San Antonio Spurs (which was nationally televised on ESPN for some reason) at 18-37, third from the bottom of the Western Conference, and they exited it with a 129-81 loss. That’s a 48-point margin of defeat, which tied their record for the worst loss in franchise history. Oh, and they set that record earlier this year in their season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, and it was their third loss this season by 40 points or more:

And it’s not like San Antonio was particularly pouring on the gas here. Their five starters only played a combined 106 minutes (an average of 21.2). Despite that, the Spurs led by 36 points at the half, the largest halftime lead in their team’s history, and they kept at least that lead for the whole second half, even extending it to 53 points at one moment during the fourth quarter. And San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich even delegated the coaching down the stretch:

Oh, and Phoenix only avoided the single worst loss in team history thanks to a Danuel House alley-oop dunk with six seconds left, which cut the deficit from 50 to 48:

Of course, there were some other factors at play here. The Suns were without leading scorer Devin Booker, who missed his second straight game with a hip injury, and without center Tyson Chandler, out with a neck injury. And starting point guard Tyler Ulis left after just nine minutes played with back spasms. So they were quite shorthanded. But still, this wasn’t exactly a good effort; they only connected on 33 of 97 shots from the field (34 per cent) and only made three of 32 three-pointers (9.4 per cent). And they were pretty resoundingly lit up by Twitter:

That’s no way to honor Steve Nash, Suns:

Maybe they should bring him out of retirement.

[NBA.com]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.