5 takeaways from disastrous Cavaliers loss

Truth in the Booth: The Suns clearly looked like they are far behind another championship contender in the NBA.

The Phoenix Suns were defeated by the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers, 118-92, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Monday afternoon.

The Suns were led in scoring by Kevin Durant, who had 23 points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocks. Guard Devin Booker committed six of the Suns’ 17 turnovers and scored 15 points while making 6-of-14 field goals.

Phoenix got a subpar performance from guard Bradley Beal off the bench. Beal, who is rumored to be in trade talks involving a potential move for Jimmy Butler, had five points and was minus-25 for the game.

Here are five takeaways from Monday’s game.

Suns drubbed by best team in the East

Cleveland’s system under coach Kenny Atkinson has maximized the production of backcourt duo Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, who are the heads of the Cavaliers. Mitchell, who is often compared to Booker as one of the NBA’s best shooting guards, won this duel with 33 points on 11-of-25 field goals, including 4-of-9 threes. Mitchell’s performance was better than Booker and Durant, who want to be known as the best duo in the NBA.

Cleveland attempted 20 more threes (46 to 26) than the Suns. By a numbers perspective, the Cavs had a big advantage and used a 32-19 second quarter to pull ahead. The Cavaliers made 5-of-9 threes in the period, and the Suns were just 6-of-19 from the field. Outside of Durant, the Suns were 3-of-11 from the field.

Durant’s second quarter downed by poor Suns shooting

For too often, the Suns have gone as long as KD has taken them. He shot 3-of-5 and had seven second-quarter points. But, the Suns did not shoot well collectively.

Outside of Durant, Phoenix shot 3-of-14, and 2-of-7 from three. Meanwhile the Cavaliers shot 11-of-19 and had Mitchell (6 pts) and guard Darius Garland (10 points) light up the scoring.

Booker outplayed by Mitchell

I was super excited to see Book and Donovan square off. Mitchell, who is one of the game’s top players and is having a big season, is someone who is often compared to Book as one of the three best shooting guards, along with Anthony Edwards.

Mitchell clearly outplayed Book, whose streak of five games with at least 30 points ended. Mitchell now has won nine of the 15 regular-season meetings against Book.

Kenny Atkinson runs circles around Budenholzer

Mike Budenholzer is a former NBA champion as a head coach, and Atkinson is chasing the same feat. His Cavaliers were clearly the better team against the Suns, who looked like they are below the Cavaliers in a championship chase.

I thought Cleveland’s offense was intentional and moved the basketball better than I’ve seen from almost every other team in the NBA. Also, they out-rebounded the Suns by 16.

Suns not a title contender with this roster

Clearly, Phoenix needs a shake-up. Even though Nick Richards played an effective game against the Pistons, he needs time to gel. He only had four rebounds in 22 minutes, along with five personal fouls.

Jimmy Butler is still trying to get to Phoenix, but if we’re being fully transparent, that is not enough for this team to win, like it has set out to do under Mat Ishbia.