PHOENIX -- After surprisingly finishing as a top-10 defensive team last season, the Phoenix Suns have not found close to the same success through the first three games of the year.

Phoenix (1-2) ranks last in the NBA with a 124.5 defensive rating and is allowing a league-worst 40.7% opponent 3-point percentage.

"We're 30th in defense, so that's not great. That's terrible, and we're figuring out ways to jumpstart our defense and jumpstart our offense," Suns forward Dillon Brooks said.

The Suns are coming out of three full days off tonight against the Denver Nuggets after falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder 125-114 Monday, and coach Jordan Ott said the main focus of the last few days have been improving the defense.

After ranking third in the NBA in steals last season, the Suns recognize the importance of how their defense can open up the pace they want to play with and what they want to do offensively as well.

"When you're 30th in defense, we need to get better there first and foremost," Ott said. "Our defense last year fueled our offense a lot, when you physically steal the ball from the other team. Now we're so concerned on the glass that now we're coming back to try to get a rebound, and then when you're not defending at a high level, you're taking the ball out of bounds."

As Ott pointed out, the Suns also are allowing the most offensive rebounds per game in the NBA, which has not helped their defensive struggles at all.

Miles Bridges, who Phoenix brought in to be a bigger body in the starting lineup and has not made a strong impression so far, discussed what he feels is wrong with the defense.

"It's an effort thing. Sometimes we're not in the right spots, but that could be handled with communication. Right now, it's just giving more effort, getting to the ball more, and finishing possessions with rebounds," Bridges said.

"We just been working on all defensive stuff. Getting into the ball, finishing the plays with rebounds. Just our physicality on defense needs to get better. So that's what we've been working on."

Through the first three games of the year, the Suns have let opponents dictate the way they want the game to go, which is a stark contrast to last season when they set the tone with their defense the majority of the time.

They'll have a chance to turn things around in their first NBA Cup group matchup against Denver.

"We all know we're not at our standard right now. We haven't played the best defense in the past three games, but it's three games into this season, and we gotta keep on getting better, game by game," Suns center Khaman Maluach said.

"We just gotta play to our standard, the us we know. We got to play to the Suns way, and we had two good days of practice. So we'll see what happens (against Denver), and we'll get better from game to game."