Suns Knows Rebounds, Turnovers Key vs Tough Nuggets Squad
Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams was not in denial about what happened on the floor in Phoenix’s 125-107 Game 1 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
“They just destroyed us tonight.”
The Suns have now dropped both opening series games to Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers respectively. Phoenix however was given the benefit of the Clippers going on without Kawhi Leonard in the final games of the previous round.
This time around, stars such as Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are in perfect health.
Many similar issues continued for Phoenix in terms of rebounding and turnovers. Kevin Durant was quick to take the blame on the issue of turnovers saying, “No, it was on me. I just slipped a couple times, threw a couple bad passes. I only had one assist and seven turnovers. You're not going to win basketball games like that. I have to be way more careful with the ball.”
The Suns are still a newly formed team in some ways, as Saturday was just the 14th game in the (healthy) Kevin Durant era. Even in their wins against the Clippers, Phoenix hasn't consistently looked in postseason form. In Game 1 against Denver, the Suns were out rebounded 49-38 and turned over the ball 16 times.
Josh Okogie especially struggled rebounding in Game 1, recording just two boards as a starter. He explained what he and the team learned from game one against the Clippers that can be taken to this series: “Just watching film and seeing how double teams are attacking us. It’s kind of hard to take a holistic approach to that during the game, but to kind of see how we did throughout the whole game, see the tendencies, make corrections, make adjustments.”
The Suns will need to win at least one game on the road if they look to continue on to the Western Conference Finals. Game 2 is tonight at 7:00 PM PST.
