CLEVELAND – The skid continues.

Phoenix looked to come out of the NBA All-Star break refreshed, recharged and ready to put an end to all this losing.

The Suns instead dropped what is now a franchise record 16th consecutive game, 111-98, Thursday night against a team that is having just as bad of a season as them – the Cleveland Cavaliers (13-46).

“We all feel bad about it, but the reality, that’s who we are right now,” Suns coach Igor Kokosokv said. “Tonight, and the record tells us who we are as a team right now. That’s not (an) opinion, that’s fact. The thing that we can do is be professional, maintain our professionalism, and try to find a win to win the games.” 

Kelly Oubre Jr. got his first start with the Suns. Scored 23 points.

Didn’t matter. Phoenix (11-49) still lost.

Oubre said he needed to see film before determining how Phoenix lost this one, but he brought up a point Tyler Johnson made to the team that has stuck with him.

“When teams think of the Suns, they think let’s just play hard for 48 minutes because they’ll give up because they don’t know how to win,” Oubre Jr. said.

Johnson came in a trade from Miami, which is known for playing hard.

Based on what Oubre said, Phoenix has a different rep.

“This is unacceptable,” Oubre later said. “For another team to say about us, it doesn’t feel good. We’ve just got to find our identity and build a culture in Phoenix. We can do it. We have the talent. It’s about going out there and having the will to win.” 

Devin Booker posted his 14th 30-point game. Added seven assists.

Didn’t matter. He also had a game-high nine turnovers as Cleveland scored 28 points off 17 Phoenix turnovers.

“We didn’t execute and a lot of things we can control,” Booker said. “Coming out of timeouts forgetting plays.”

It gets worse.

“They ran the same play, I think, six or seven straight times and scored on it,” Booker said. “And it’s one of our plays. Stuff that we can control that we’re not thinking, I guess. We’re not all the way there. We’re not locked in. We’re not focused.” 

This is after an all-star break when the players were supposed to take the time to get their minds right. 

The Suns erased a 10-point deficit with a 12-1 run to take a 72-71 lead late in third quarter.

Didn’t matter.

Cleveland answered with a 12-0 run that carried over into the fourth to go up 11. Jordan Clarkson and former Suns forward Marquese Chriss got that run going with back-to-back threes.

“At this level, you can’t be lackadaisical and take a possession off and not know what you’re running and not knowing coverage,” Kokoskov said. “They’re a little more experienced. They were sharper. They were executing better in crunch time.”  

Now Phoenix will continue this three-game road trip Saturday at Atlanta and conclude it Monday against Miami.

Before making this cross country trek, Booker called these games “winnable” ones.

“Fresh start,” Booker said. “We have a stretch of games, very winnable games for us: Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami. So, about to go out east for the last time, and hopefully we’ll come out with some big wins.”

The following night, Phoenix lost to the Cavaliers by double digits.

“Personally, it hurts,” Kokoskov said.  “I can’t say I’m embarrassed, but that’s reality. That’s who we are tonight.” 

How rare is that for Cleveland?

The Cavs came into the game with only three double-digit victories. They hadn’t had one since Dec. 8 when beating Washington by 15.

Two months later, Cleveland buries Phoenix with a 34-26 fourth quarter that included four threes.

“We started off pretty well, but when things didn’t go our way, we got quiet,” said Suns rookie 7-footer Deandre Ayton, who scored six of his 13 points in helping Phoenix build a 28-23 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“Cavs took a big advantage off that and had a clinic on us. They made some big threes. Their ball movement was insane. That’s what really got us.” 

Cleveland has Kevin Love back from injury as he’s been out seemingly forever – 50 games – with toe injury. He put in work with 16 points and 11 rebounds, but he didn’t play the fourth quarter.

This is part of Love’s return from injury. He’s on a minutes restrictions.

So Phoenix had a chance to put away the Cavaliers in the money quarter. They instead gave up layup, dunks and threes as Cleveland shot 13-of-18 from the field in the fourth.

Remember Booker saying they scored on six, or seven straight possession?

Kokoskov said the same thing, but Oubre expanded on how dominant Cleveland’s run was against Phoenix.

“That cannot happen,” Oubre Jr. said. “Just thinking about anybody that watches the game of basketball that knows basketball knows that if you let somebody score 10 times in a row, then you’re not really competing. So that’s what it looks like, but we’re out there giving it our all, but just the perception of us letting dudes get what they want 10 times in a row is not good.” 

After Phoenix lost by 27 at Los Angeles against the Clippers going into the all-star break, Igor Kokoskov felt that the Suns need an “escape.”

“We’re all going to get to escape from each other,” Kokoskov said. “I think we all need that escape emotionally from losing games, but we are who we are as a group. We belong here and if we want to change something, we have to do it as a group. Starting from each individual, understanding that we need to change.”

The Suns were unable to escape losing.

They could’ve used TJ Warren, but he remains out with right ankle soreness.

The team’s second-leading scorer missed his 11 straight games. Kokoskov said before the game it’s a matter of whether he can tolerate the pain of the injury.

Still, this was a winnable game for Phoenix. The Suns had many incentives to win.

End a 15-game losing skid.

Avoid losing to a team that’s having just as bad a season as them.

Made a change in the starting lineup.

Didn’t matter.

The skid continues at a record rate.

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