Mar. 1, 2013; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Goran Dragic (1) shoots the ball against the Atlanta Hawks in the second half at US Airways Center. The Suns defeated the Hawks 92-87. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns fall to the Toronto Raptors 98-71, due to bad play all across the board for the Suns.

In the first period, Marcin Gortat had eight easy points, but then as a foreboding foreshadowing of things to come, hurt his foot with 34 seconds left in the quarter and headed to the locker room. According to the Suns’ official Twitter feed, “X-rays on Gortat’s right foot were negative.” From there things got worse.

All that has to be said is that the Raptors outscored Phoenix in each of the four quarters of the game. The Suns only led by a couple points early in the game, and Toronto was up by 30 points in the final minutes.

“I don’t see one bright spot to take from that game other than it being over, ” said Suns head coach Lindsey Hunter after the game, according to the Suns official Twitter feed.

The Suns offense was non-existent in this game. They never scored 25 points in any of the quarters and challenged the franchise low in points in a game which is 68, only beating it because of a Marcus Morris three-pointer.

One glaring problem that reared its ugly head was turnovers. Phoenix had a dismal 29 turnovers that the Raptors capitalized on for 39 points, making it very difficult for any team to win when they shoot themselves in the foot like that.

It was pretty much a miserable game for all involved on the Suns side of the ball.

“It’s not only one or two guys, it was a team thing,” said Suns point guard Goran Dragic after the game.

You know its bad when Marcus Morris, one of the youngest players on the team and one of the newest acquisitions leads the team in scoring with 12 points. 12! Points were just too hard to come by in this game, despite the Raptors not being a great defensive team.

However, on Toronto’s side, everything was clicking. The Raptors had six players in double-figures and were able to sit the starters for a while, so that four of those six players were from the bench.

For the starters, DeMar DeRozan scored 15 points and Jonas Valanciunas added 10. Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry both only had five points as they played significantly less minutes than usual as did Andrea Bargnani, who finished with nine points.

From the reserves, four players made contributions that helped their team come out of the desert with a huge victory. Amir Johnson scored 14 points, while Alan Anderson and Terrence Ross both added 10. However, the most important was former Sun,  Sebastian Telfair. Telfair scored 13 points off the bench in 27 minutes including three makes from behind the arc, seven assists, four steals, and a +22 plus/minus (which measures the team’s net points while the player is on the court).

The Brooklyn native got his revenge for being dealt to a lottery team mid-season to give Kendall Marshall (and to a lesser extent Diante Garrett) more minutes. Telfair expressed his bitterness at having to leave his family to play so far away in Toronto in a recent interview with KTAR 620 Arizona Sports writer Craig Grialou.

The Suns did a poor job of defending the three-point line, giving up 11-24 for 45.8 percent from downtown, which is unacceptable. In terms of overall rebounding, the teams tied at 40 boards apiece and Phoenix even had a bigger percentage of the rebounds be on the offensive end. The problem was that Toronto was shooting over 10 percent better from the floor (48.1% -37.8%), so there weren’t as many rebounds to be had.

The Raptors did a good job of coming out strong in the early going, up by four at the end of the first quarter, stretching the lead to 14 by halftime. Also, their defense (or Suns lack of offense) was stellar, as Phoenix only scored 71 points, instead of the 106.6 that they usually give up per game.

The first quarter wasn’t as indicative of the game as the second or third quarters, when Toronto blew the game wide open. Additionally, Gortat was a factor early, but after his injury, the Suns couldn’t get anything going, and with such a big lead Bargnani didn’t even need to stay in the game.

This loss was good for Phoenix’s own draft position come the 2013 NBA draft. However, it was disastrous pertaining to the pick the Los Angeles Lakers owe us. L.A. went on a huge run to beat the New Orleans Hornets, the Cleveland Caveliers beat the Utah Jazz, and the Dallas Maverick beat the Houston Rockets. Now Kobe and the Lakers are 1.5 games out of the eighth spot and 2 games out of seventh in the Western Conference playoffs.

Nov 30, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Phoenix Suns forward Markieff Morris (11) and guard Goran Dragic (1) try to take the ball away from Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry (3) at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns (21-39) come into Wednesday’s game rested after a four-day layoff with a three-game winning streak, as they host the Toronto Raptors (23-38). Phoenix would tie a season-high streak if they can come out with a victory.

Toronto is in a slump. On January 30^th, the Raptors acquired Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies as the main piece in a three-way trade that also included the Detroit Pistons. In the following eight games the team went 6-2, with the only losses to the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, and wins over playoff teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and New York Knicks.

However, now that everyone has settled in, they have gotten worse. Since that hot start, the Raptors have gone 1-6 and are currently on a five-game losing streak.

ESPN sets the line for this game at -1.5 for the Suns; basically saying Toronto will win by about one and a half points. This line is counter-intuitive because Phoenix is hot, with their win streak over the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks, and are rested going against the barely better (record-wise) Raptors who haven’t won in over a week. However, the line is usually right, or at least close.

All the injuries for both teams going into tonight’s game are labeled as day-to-day, and the injuries are minor and everybody should play. The exception will be Jermaine O’Neal, who is away from the team for an indefinite amount of time to be with his daughter for her surgery to repair a leaky heart valve. For the Suns, Goran Dragic, Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris will all play while they deal with minor injuries. For the Raptors, all three players on the injury report (Andrea Bargnani, Rudy Gay, and Kyle Lowry) all played Monday and there is no reason to think they won’t against Phoenix.

Keys to the game: Suns

• Defend the three-point line. The Raptors with the addition of Rudy Gay and the return of Andrea Bargnani are a very dangerous group from beyond the arc, even though they are 21^st in the league, shooting 34.9 percent from downtown. You never want to be the team that lets your opponent just keep making threes. The Suns probably won’t catch up if they let Toronto go wild from behind the arc because Phoenix is worse. They are a miserable 32.8 percent from three for 29^th in the league this season.

• Second chance points. The Raptors are far from an adequate rebounding team and if Marcin Gortat and co. can keep the likes of Bargnani and Gay off the boards in order to get second chance buckets, it’ll do wonders.

Keys to the game: Raptors

• Get off to a good start. A five-game losing streak isn’t good for confidence going forward. The Raptors must burst out of the gates strong, in order to have a chance to win.

• Lock up! Defensively the Raptors have given up 106.6 points on average in their five-game losing streak

The X-Factor!

• The first quarter. While not indicative of the entire game, if the Suns can gain a substantial lead in the first 12 minutes, then Toronto might lose heart and not be able to get back into the game.

Match-up to watch!

•  Gortat versus Bargnani. The Raptor’s center is coming off of a calf injury and if he can get his offense going the Suns might be in trouble. Gortat will have to contain him.

These teams are similar, although Toronto will have their “brighter future” sooner than Phoenix, because they were able to trade for a kind of star (Rudy Gay) and have the young talent that will develop nicely. If the Suns end up winning this game it won’t be good for their draft position. They need to lose these close games to less than stellar teams if they want a top-3 pick this off-season.