Mikal Bridges misses last shot, Phoenix Suns fall to Cavaliers, ending road trip 1-5

CLEVELAND – Mikal Bridges took the final shot.

Suns coach Monty Williams can live with the results either way, but Phoenix ended up on the wrong end of the outcome.

Bridges missed what has become a go-to pull-up in the lane as time expired in Wednesday’s 90-88 loss at Cleveland before a sellout crowd of 19,432 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

“I told him I was proud that he took that shot,” Williams said. “We've been talking about the ability to come off and receive the ball and take the shot and deal with the consequences either way."

Bridges shot just 3-of-12 from the field for 10 points, but he curled off a screen from Deandre Ayton after Damion Lee flared for a corner 3 and received the inbounds pass from Chris Paul for the shot.

Going right to left, the right-handed Bridges crossed the free throw line and it fading left over Donovan Mitchell, but missed the shot with 0.5 seconds remaining.

“Coach trust me to make a play and I tried to get to my spot, and it just didn't go in," Bridges said.

Mitchell rebounded the miss and threw the ball to the other end of the court to end the game.

“Great look, we’ll take that any day of the week,” Paul said. “The whole game didn’t come down to that shot, but I think we got a great look.”

Cavs big Evan Mobley hit the game winning shot with four seconds left as Phoenix (20-19) has now lost seven of their last eight games, with this one being the closest margin of defeat during this stretch.

The Suns led by seven points with 7:07 left in the game, but wound up losing their fourth straight to finish the six-game road trip 1-5.

"I think the guys are hurting after a game like that because we had it won," Williams said.

All-Star guard Devin Booker didn’t play in the final five games of the trip after suffering a left groin strain in the first quarter of the Christmas overtime loss at Denver. They lost Cameron Payne again Wednesday as he re-aggravated a foot injury in just his second game back after missing nine with a right foot strain.

“I tripped before he even got to me,” said Payne as he re-injured his foot on a play where he fell and fouled Mitchell in the first quarter,“ he said "… I went back and watched it and it's just like clumsy Cam Payne."

Paul paced Phoenix with a game-high 25 points while Ayton posted a double-double with 15 points and 18 rebounds. Landry Shamet added 14 points as his 3 tied the game at 88-88 with 26.7 second left.

This was after Mitchell hit a 3 to put Cleveland (25-14) up three with 40 seconds left.

Coming off a career-best 71-point night in an overtime win Monday over Chicago, Mitchell only scored 20 points Wednesday, made just 3-of-12 from 3, but got loose on that last deep look and delivered.

“We lost Mitchell on the 3 on the left wing and Donovan Mitchell just scored 71 points,” Williams said as he said Torrey Craig and Shamet got crossed on the play. “He's a guy you have to have high awareness, high alert."

Then after Shamet tied the game, Cleveland called a timeout before Mitchell found Mobley off dribble penetration for the game winner. Mitchell finished with a game-high nine assists.

That set up the final shot Bridges missed as time expired on a play that was essentially 4-on-4 as Shamet was on the other side of the halfcourt line with Caris LeVert guarding him.

LeVert led Cleveland with 21 points, hitting 5-of-7 from 3.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mikal Bridges misses last shot, Phoenix Suns fall 90-88 to end road trip 1-5