After losing a third straight game to fall to 8-8 this season, a frustrated Chris Paul said bluntly about the current state of the Phoenix Suns: they have to play better.
“We’re not …” Paul began, pausing briefly, “playing well enough right now. I won’t say we’re not good enough, but right now we’re not playing well enough.”
The Suns fell 102-97 at home Wednesday to Paul’s former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the final three minutes for Phoenix. The Thunder finished with an 11-2 run, and the Suns lost their last six shots.
Paul, who led the Thunder to an astonishing 5 leagues last season behind a brilliant game in clutch time, scored 32 points high in the season in 35 minutes against OKC. But they didn’t drop two clean looks in the last 20 seconds, the first was a medium turn that came off the edge and the second an instant 3 draw potential that caught all the air.
The Suns have been without star guard Devin Booker for the past two games due to hamstring pain. Although the team has lost its ability to score, coach Monty Williams refused to acknowledge this or anything else as an excuse.
“Until this team understands consistency for four quarters, we’ll feel that way,” Williams said. “We can try to make everyone feel sorry for us. It won’t work. We have to be consistent. That’s our thing.”
Williams, clearly aggravated in his two-minute post-game availability, affected the Suns ’need for consistency.
“Along the stretch, we had an incredibly poor finish,” he said. “We have open shots, no shots under the basket. It’s just poor. Bad execution and unfinished. That’s it.
“At some point, you just have to finish the games and understand what it takes to be a really good team, it’s perseverance,” Williams said. “Point. That’s the deal.”
Williams said if he was asked any questions from that point on, he would answer in the same way: consistency.
“Whatever you ask me, I’ll say ‘consistency,'” Williams said. “That’s it.”
The Suns led by 15 at the end of the first quarter. But with a sloppy ball loss and a stagnant offense, they only scored 10 points in the second quarter, prompting an OKC 21-4 to advance to the break.
As Paul usually does, he settled quietly into the game, postponing himself early but asserting himself late. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter to give the Suns a late lead, but defensive defenses and poor offensive possessions caused Phoenix to collapse.
“We play lightning,” Paul said. “We have to respect who we’re playing for. Every night. Respect your opponent. They’re paid just like us.”
For Paul and the Suns, a promising start to the season has fallen in the last three weeks. Paul’s addition had seemed to help maintain the momentum they generated with his undefeated bubble race, but the interruption of the season with a three-game break from safety and health protocols and Booker’s injury have stopped.
The Suns have lost five of their last six games, almost every recent loss has been called close: overtime games against the Denver Nuggets don’t go their way, a four-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and a five-point loss and OKC.
“I’m just trying to figure out how we can win,” Paul said. “Because lost things get old.”