Suns Coach Monty Williams Takes Full Responsibility for Game 6 Collapse
The Phoenix Suns saw their season end far earlier than they had hoped, as a disappointing playoff run finally reach its end in an embarrassing 125-100 defeat to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
It was an awfully similar feeling to how last year ended for Phoenix, with the Suns embarrassed at home in an elimination game in the second round. The Nuggets had 81 points at halftime and led by as much as 32 during the night.
It's not as if Phoenix played bad - they shot 48% from the field. They had the same amount of fouls (22) called as the Nuggets.
However, Denver simply looked like the more dominant team over the course of the series, though Game 6 featured strong performances across the board.
Following the game, Suns coach Monty Williams took full responsibility for the loss:
"81 points in the first half was deflating, to just see them score like that and running down the floor getting easy buckets. That falls on my shoulders - not having us ready to play at the highest level in the biggest game of the year. Bottom line," said Williams.
"The next 24 hours will be what you can imagine. You don't feel that great. I take that personally, not having our team ready to play in the biggest game of the year. That's something that I pride myself on and it just didn't happen tonight. So that's something that I have to really take a deep look at everything I'm doing to allow us to be successful on these days."
The coming days will raise many questions on Williams and his status as Phoenix's head coach. He wrapped up his postgame availability with this:
"I'm just not a blame guy. It's just not my personality. It's not how I was raised. Not how I was taught. I'm a no excuses, no explanation person when it comes to getting the job done," Williams said.
"I have people that I answer to and they put a lot of trust in me. And when I let them down, it's part of being a competitor. You want to win, and that's the ultimate goal is to win and when you don't, I don't know of any competitor who doesn't look at himself first and try to evaluate so you can be better."
