Phoenix Suns: Jalen Smith overcomes poor start in NBA Summer League loss to Utah Jazz – The Arizona Republic

Jalen Smith earned his attempts in the first half of Monday night’s 63-57 loss to Utah Jazz in NBA Summer League action at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The 6-10 Phoenix Suns big grabbed five offensive boards in 15 minutes of action.

Just wasn’t able to finish them in shooting an ugh 1-of-9 from the field.

“It’s the NBA, it’s a make-or-miss league,” Smith said. “You can’t get down on yourself. I kind of got down on myself on my shots, but at the end, my team picked me back up. I picked myself back up. I knew even though my shots weren’t falling, another way I could impact was on defense and trying to grab every board.” 

The 2020 first rounder fared much better from the field in the second half with a 4-of-6 effort in finishing the game with 12 points. Posting a second straight double-double, Smith grabbed 15 rebounds with eight coming on the offensive glass.

“In the second half, I did the same thing, (but) they rolled in this time,” he said. “That’s just the game of basketball. You love it sometimes and you hate it sometimes, but you’ve got to play it.” 

Smith wasn’t the only one misfiring Monday.

The Suns shot a catastrophic 19-of-79 from the field, going 4-of-19 from 3.

“(Smith) gave a pretty consistent effort,” said Suns assistant coach Brian Randle, who is serving as head coach of summer league team. “It’s one of those nights, unfortunately, none of us shot it well and we were looking for answers and solutions, trying to find ways to get easier buckets, but we got into the actions we wanted to get into. We generated some pretty good looks in the paint on the rim, from 3. Just wasn’t able to convert. It was kind of a systematic thing in a way.”

Ty-Shon Alexander led the Suns with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting as he scored off the bounce in the midrange area, hit a 3 and got to the line (5-of-5 free throws).

“He’s a natural scorer,” Randle said. “That’s what he did in college and it’s one of those gifts you can’t really teach. You can figure out how to get guys to spots, you can work on mechanics and obviously that improves things, but he just has a natural knack of scoring and knowing how to get to where he wants to get to and get his shots off. Again, it was all on full display tonight.”

Randle also praised Alexander’s defensive effort in terms of awareness and hunger to get stops.

 “My main focus right now is trying to defend, making sure I fight,” Alexander said. “Getting up under guys. Making everything just a pressure situation.”

Smith and Alexander have reached double figures in Phoenix first two summer league games. Smith posted a double-double of 15 points and 12 boards Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers while Alexander had 11 points, all coming in the first half.

Coming off the bench, Alexander expected to get feedback on his play from the Suns veterans as Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Cameron Payne, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson all watched Sunday’s game together sitting courtside.

He got it from Johnson.

“He was letting me know I need to go in and play a little harder,” Alexander said. “I need do more on the defensive end, be better on defense and also be able to pick spots. Get teammates involved and also find my situations as well. It’s cool to have these guys being able to come along talk to us rookies, me and Stix for example. Being able to learn from them, being able to keep working every single day. It’s amazing.” 

While Smith and Alexander are more familiar with the Suns after being on the team this past season, Justin Simon is starting to make an impression.

Starting his college career at Arizona before transferring to St. John’s, the 2019 undrafted rookie has played with aggression and activity in summer league.

The 6-5 wing posted 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting, five rebounds, two steals, two blocks and two assists to two turnovers in 24 minutes Monday.

 “He’s been fantastic,” said Randle about Simon, who scored four points in a loss to Lakers, but had three steals. “He knows his game. That’s one thing I can say about him and sometimes that’s hard for a player to figure out, but it’s something that he embraces and he’s good at it.”

Simon played for the G-League Windy City Bulls in 2019-20 and Illawarra Hawks in Australia this past season.

“He knows what he does,” Randle continued. “He does it well. He stays within himself and he did that tonight. I think for anybody watching, there is always a place on any team for a guy like that and I love it.” 

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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