LOS ANGELES – Bradley Beal adjusted his beanie so it fit snugly, but his scowl remained the same.

THE Phoenix Suns blew a 22-point first-half lead in its 123-116 loss Friday night to the Los Angeles Lakers in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,997 at Crypto.com Arena, leaving Beal distraught over the team’s first loss of the season.

“It’s super frustrating,” Beal said. “We took them 15, 20. They were all confused. We put them where we wanted them. They didn’t really have an answer. We got really complacent.”

Phoenix (1-1) was outscored 97-68 after taking a 48-26 lead on a 3-pointer by Beal with 9:43 left in the first half.

Kevin Durant scored a team-high 30 points, Devin Booker scored 23 on 21 shot attempts and Beal added 15 and nine assists. The Suns committed 17 turnovers which led to 26 points for the Lakers.

Anthony Davis powered the Lakers with a dominant 35-point effort, hitting 13 of 17 from the line. He attempted the same number of free throws as the Suns, who made only two more free throws than him.

Austin Reaves scored 26 points, hitting 5 of 7 from distance while LeBron James added 21 points and eight assists. The Lakers finished 29 of 39 from the line.

Here are three takeaways from Friday’s loss. The Suns will play a third game in four days Saturday against Dallas (1-0) in their home opener at the Footprint Center at 7 p.m.

I stopped sharing the ball

Phoenix had 14 assists in the first quarter on 15 field goal attempts thanks to quick ball and player movement. The Suns were driving and kicking for open looks and were not afraid to go for it.

They finished the game with 35 assists on 42 field goals, but returned to more 1-on-1 basketball in the second and third quarters, which accounted for the 17 turnovers.

The Suns have the best assist-to-turnover ratio in Tyus Jones, but Booker, Durant and Beal are still throwing more offense than they should have when Jones was signed to help solve that problem a season ago . However, Jones only had four assists to two turnovers on Friday.

It may be a matter of trying to understand the different lineups and rotations, but when a team goes from seemingly unstoppable to sloppy, it raises other questions in terms of sticking to the game plan and why Phoenix continues to have these periods of loose basketball with a true leader of the team.

When the point guard begins the offense, the Big 3 can move without the ball to break free or move to their spot and be ready to shoot. When the Suns try to compete one-on-one, it tends to lead to hits, misses, or tough turnovers.

These mistakes allowed the Lakers to come out and run. They went from five points on fast break in the first quarter to 28 for the game.

The Lakers regained their confidence and began knocking down 3-pointers to the tune of 14 of 27 for the game.

When Reaves and James made four straight 3s to pull within one, 67-66, with 9:20 left in the third, the Suns were in trouble.

More than 3 please

Phoenix attempted 11 3s in the first quarter, making eight. This put them in a position to throw up 44, which was their average in the preseason, but they only threw 26 more for the rest of the game.

You see, it’s easy to take 3s when you’re fat. Everyone is having fun and celebrating. Then, when the Lakers started to tighten things up, the Suns gave up a few 3s.

Coach Mike Budenholzer felt the Suns failed to get stops, which fuels their offense. That’s true, but they also weren’t keen to move the ball when they lost the lead.

It was like they were playing two different styles. The Lakers closed better with 3-pointers in the second half, but there was enough of a gap to keep putting them up.

Ironically, the Lakers caught fire from 3 down. After a 1-of-5 effort from distance in the first quarter, the Lakers ended up going 14-of-27 for the game.

Budenholzer is still figuring out lineups to try to determine who plays well with who. He picked off Beal after Beal was cooking in the first half.

Again, Budenholzer is trying to control his key players’ minutes, but if everyone has the green light to shoot 3s, the Suns need to move the ball to make sure they fully maximize those opportunities.

Durant estimated the Suns could have attempted 10 more 3s and he could have made six to seven instead of three (making two). Not having Grayson Allen accounted for in their 3-point attempts. He missed Friday’s game for personal reasons, as he and his wife expect.

They may leave Los Angeles thinking that 17 of 37 is a good outing, but 3-point shooting may be their best way to avoid going 1-on-1.

Durant can make any shot, but the best for this team is the catch and shoot 3 because it comes from ball movement. This is the Suns’ best offense, not one-on-one, even with three big players one-on-one.

Free throw gap

At one point, Phoenix was 1 of 2 on free throws while the Lakers were 13 of 18. Los Angeles finished 29 of 39 to Phoenix’s 15 of 17.

Here’s the deal.

Offensively, the Suns are not a downhill team that attacks the paint. Now, did they make contact, sure, but not to the level necessary to rack up a bunch of free throw attempts.

Defensively, the Suns need to be better at keeping teams out of the paint when dribbling.

Then there’s Davis, who is a nightmare to cover for anyone, but even more so for the Suns. He proved himself with Jusuf Nurkic last season and started the season with the same success.

Nurkic had a horrible game, scoring just four points and committing four fouls and four turnovers in 18 minutes. It reached a point where Budenholzer went small, knowing it wasn’t the most ideal move to stop Davis, but it could help them disperse the Lakers on the other end.

Sound familiar? The Suns went small last year with Durant at five, but that leaves them vulnerable on the glass trying to stop Davis.

Back to Nurkic very quickly. He was cut back and entered the season looking to take more 3s, but then the Suns tried to screen him and dive to the rim. That’s not his strength.

Maybe it would be better pick-and-pop and diving Plumlee and rookie Oso Ighodaro toward the rim.

Do you have any thoughts on the current state of the Suns? Contact Suns insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article was originally published on Arizona Republic: Suns vs Lakers: Phoenix loses 22 points in defeat