This certainly hasn’t been the season that was expected in Arizona, as the Suns have now hit a new low with a devastating 116-98 home defeat to the Timberwolves on Sunday night. At this point, even the squad’s leaders are beginning to crumble, and criticised their performance postgame.
“We didn’t play up to our standards at all,” said veteran forward Kevin Durant after the humiliating loss. “We embarrassed the fans and we embarrassed ourselves the way we played. I want us to be better.”
This last defeat meant their 11th in the last 14 matches, as Phoenix are now 28-33 in the Western Conference standings. However, it gets worse, as they have fallen out of play-in tournament territory, with four games behind the Mavericks for the final spot.
With 21 games left of regular season, things will need to change in Arizona if they hope to continue in the competition. The Suns actually led last night’s matchup 51-49 at halftime, but then Minnesota called back with a 83-72 lead heading into the game’s last quarter.
“We’ve got to go on a run, but it’s got to start,” said coach Mike Budenholzer, visibly frustrated after the contest. “There’s no doubt that the standings, the circumstances that we’re in, there’s an awareness and we’ve got to do something to change it.”
The Wolves are the same team that swept them last year during the playoff’s first round. If it wasn’t enough, their rivals have also beaten them in all three regular-season matchups so far this campaign. “When adversity hits, we start floating a little as a team,” Durant insisted. “That’s tough to deal with it.”
It seems pretty clear what happened on Sunday evening, as they tied their season high in turnovers (22), but did give up a season-high 40 points off of those plays. “That’s why we lost,” KD explained. “Forty points off turnovers, tough to overcome that. They didn’t overpower us on the glass, we just gave them the ball.”