Suns want to see fewer fouls, turnovers in second preseason game
PHOENIX -- Once Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek went back and looked at the film, Wednesday's preseason opener against Brazilian League champion Flamengo didn't look quite as bad as it did in the immediate aftermath of the 100-88 win.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought," Hornacek said after Thursday's practice at US Airways Center. "Overall I think it was better than maybe I thought while it was going on."
Still, Hornacek wants to see a few big improvements when the Suns take the court again Friday against the Denver Nuggets. Chief among them: Turnovers and fouls.
The Suns committed 21 turnovers in the game, at one point making a frustrated Hornacek slap his hand on the scorer's table.
"Some of them are mistakes that maybe it's early season with travels," Hornacek said.
As for fouls, the Suns committed 27. Hornacek mentioned a number of those coming on offensive screens, which sometimes tend to get called more early in the season. The problem, though, didn't just exist on one end of the floor.
"We were in the bonus too early in all the quarters," Horncek said. "We've got to be able to contest shots and guard guys without fouling them."
Forward P.J. Tucker said the message after Wednesday's game was mixed, and he too mentioned the Suns' foul troubles.
"It was a lot of good stuff, and it was a lot of bad stuff," Tucker said. "We hit a lot of the points we wanted to hit, but we also did a lot of dumb fouls. That's one of the things we want to not do this year from last year. We did a lot of that last year and we lost some games because of it."
Hornacek also said his players need to fight through mental tiredness right now, a time when he wants to push them to get in better shape and play at the speed they want to once the regular season arrives.
Forward Anthony Tolliver practiced fully Thursday and said afterward he plans to play Friday after missing Wednesday's preseason game due to a cut between his right pinky and ring fingers.
Tolliver, who joined the Suns this offseason on a two-year deal, was cleared to shoot Wednesday and felt comfortable doing so but said Thursday that adrenaline may have had something to do with that.
"Today it was a little bit more sore than it was yesterday, but I'm still going to go ahead and see how it feels tomorrow," Tolliver said. "If it gives me any problems, I'll probably sit out and make sure I give it enough time to heal up, but I think it's good enough to go ahead and give it a shot."
Tolliver suffered the cut last Friday when his hand caught on a teammate's jersey as he attempted to get a rebound. The cut required three stitches, which Tolliver expects to have removed after Friday's game.
UP NEXT: Suns vs. Nuggets
When: Friday, 5 p.m.
Where: US Airways Center
Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM
Watching his teammates play Wednesday, Tolliver said, gave him the chance to better understand the importance of his new role with the Suns.
"It really, honestly, made me realize how valuable my role is on this team -- spread the floor," Tolliver said. "I felt like everybody was kind of on top of each other a little bit last night."
The Suns hope Tolliver, a 42 percent three-point shooter last year, can help fill the void of departed stretch forward Channing Frye, who left in free agency after five seasons in Phoenix.
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