Immediate takeaway. Suns go from 'terrible' to worse on defense

The Phoenix Suns preached and stressed defense for three straight days – and for good reason. They have the worst defensive ranking in the league. Then, Phoenix came out and allowed the Denver Nuggets to shoot as high 70% from 3 at one point in its 127-120 loss in NBA Cup group play at Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, Oct. 30. Inexcusable. Absolutely inexcusable. The Nuggets (3-2) torched the Suns (1-3) for 61% shooting in the first half fueled by a 13-of-20 effort from 3. Christian Braun came into the game shooting a career-low 23.8% from 3 this season. He was 2-of-13 from distance in Denver’s first three games. Braun sees the Suns and becomes Stephen Curry – 6-of-6 from 3 in the first half. After one made 3, OK, all good. After two, OK, he might get it going. After the third and fourth? Might want to get a hand in his face instead of leaving him bare in the short corner. Absolutely inexcusable. The Nuggets came into the game in the bottom third in offensive rating. They should climb those charts after blitzing Phoenix’s defense. The Suns have allowed at least 122 points in their four games, giving up a season-high Friday night before a sellout crowd of 17,071 that started leaving after Braun hit his seventh 3 late in the game in scoring a career-high 31 points. Jamal Murray lit up the Suns for a game-high 39 points, hitting 7-of-9 from 3. Stop all the point guard talk. Stop all the offense talk. The Suns have been atrocious on defense this season -- Dillon Brooks used the word 'terrible' earlier this week -- after finishing ninth in defensive ranking last season. That’s not digression. That’s inexcusable. Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at  dmrankin@gannett.com  or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at  @DuaneRankin . Support local journalism: Subscribe to  azcentral.com  toda y.