Suns Looking Forward to Clean Slate vs. Celtics
There's not too many great reasons for an 82-game regular season, yet there are a few small wins in such a compact schedule.
One of those is the ability to return to game action in a short manner after losing, affording you the opportunity to right whatever previous wrongs occurred.
The Phoenix Suns hope to put that thinking to good use after what was a disastrous loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night in 130-111 fashion.
Prior to that night, the Suns' average loss was by a mere five points. Their prior three defeats were all only by one point.
Yet that's how the cookie can crumble often times in the NBA: Sometimes you're the hammer and sometimes you're the nail.
For truly just the second time all season, the Suns were on the receiving end of a blowout. Phoenix center Deandre Ayton says perhaps the team needed that.
"It's about time a team really put a butt whooping on us and let us get back in the lab and figure out what we need to do when we don't make shots during games and how we adjust," said Ayton (via Duane Rankin).
Their next test is a rather big one in the Boston Celtics, who currently sit atop the Eastern Conference with a 20-5 record having won their last eight-of-ten games.
To defeat Boston, the Suns will need a strong effort from perennial starters to minor role players.
Phoenix head coach Monty Williams says effort was perhaps the only controllable thing that fell in their favor on Monday.
"Like I told our guys, we didn’t give in. The guys off the bench came in and fought. You’re going to have nights like that, especially when you compare it to how we shot it in San Antonio," Williams said.
"You’re thinking you’re going to have something close to that, but we just didn’t have it tonight – especially in the first half. Then you look at the second half, and we actually won. I was proud of how we stayed with it. The competitive edge, the way they responded to the coaching that we gave them pre-San Antonio, that was one of those teaching days we had to have.
"They responded. We split the trip, not the way we wanted to, but we split the trip. Now, we go home and heal and get ready for the next one.”
Devin Booker added by saying, “Tonight, we can chalk this up … A loss, just another loss. We’re gonna go back to the film, get better, and get ready for Boston, another a heavy hitter. Looking forward to it.”
Booker finds himself alongside MVP conversations with Jayson Tatum, who is fourth in scoring with 30.8 points averaged per night.
The Celtics are first in points per night (120.6) and points differential (+8) and just second in field goal percentage at 49.4%.
