Adelaide 36ers Talk Suns Upset: 'They Weren't Able to Shift the Needle'
The Phoenix Suns are still hearing about their loss to the Adelaide 36ers from Sunday night.
The Australian NBL team stormed into Phoenix and emerged with a 134-124 victory in what was one of the best shooting performances in recent basketball memory, which includes making 24-of-43 three's.
"I thought we did not do a good job of reading the game. Once they made a few of them in the first quarter, I did not think we had awareness that these guys would keep making shots," said Suns coach Monty Williams following the game.
"The extreme part for me was they had 24 threes, but they also had 24 turnovers. We had chances to combat the three-point shooting but when they made that much, and we only made nine. We shot in the 20’s; that is not normal nor an average for the league.
"We did not give them the respect they deserved as a pro team. It is a great opportunity for us to learn.”
The Suns would bounce back in a win against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, but that didn't help much of the talk from across the league.
Take it from the 36ers themselves, who recently did an interview with ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
"It got about halfway through the fourth and we're all just kind of pinching ourselves," said NBL veteran Sunday Dech to MacMahon.
"Their stars played a little longer than they probably wanted to, just to show if they could punch our lights out," 36ers coach C.J. Bruton said of the Suns. "We went toe to toe when we needed to for a little bit longer. They weren't able to shift the needle.
"I'm grateful that we played the way we did just to show how competitive our league is."
"We went to Top Golf the next day. I guess that was the celebration," 36ers player Antonius Cleveland said.
"We're thinking bigger picture this year," Adelaide forward Robert Franks said. "These two games are huge for us and huge for Australia, but we've got a championship mark that we're trying to get."
Franks/Cleveland combined for 67 points in the upset over Phoenix.
The other game Adelaide played, a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, wrapped up their time in the United States. OKC handled them in a 131-98 victory.
The end of the piece finishes with a NBA scout texting MacMahon, "Suns must stink." sarcastically.
It appears as if the basketball world won't forget the Suns' loss any time soon.
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