Losers of five straight games, the Phoenix Suns find themselves reeling after a strong start to the season. After back-to-back losses against the Pelicans and another to the Rockets on Tuesday, the Suns have fallen to just 16-12 with the fourth-best record in the West.
The Suns, of course, are expected to get back to winning basketball soon just based on experience and talent, but it doesn’t mean this stretch has been easy on any of the players.
For Deandre Ayton, specifically, it has been hard for him to endure this down period. But in a conversation with the media this week, Ayton revealed his true feelings on his team’s current skid and expressed confidence that things will get better.
“Mainly just communicating,” the Suns big man told Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “Teams are using smaller guys at different positions, and they’re putting the ball on the ground, making our defense move and getting in the paint. When I go, there’s another big dude rebounding the ball and just crashing the glass and finishing in the paint. And we’re doing a lot of fouling. Playing a lot of defense and it’s putting pressure on our offense. It’s kind of hard to get into a rhythm on offense because we play so much defense and we’re fouling. All that stuff is deflating, man, and mental as hell. We could say a lot. But really man, we just gotta approach these games knowing that teams are coming to knock our head off our body, bro. Defensive-wise, I just think we need to communicate more and play hard. We just gotta be more connected. The teams we see on film aren’t the teams we play — they’re playing harder and with a chip on their shoulder against us.”
After the Suns’ fifth-straight loss, Deandre Ayton discussed his team’s recent regression.
“Really man, we just gotta approach these games knowing that teams are coming to knock our head off our body.”
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— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) December 14, 2022
Deandre Ayton And The Suns Are Focused On Playoff Basketball Despite Concerning Stretch Of Games
With more games against the Clippers and Pelicans this week, the Suns could slide down to within two games of .500 by the 18th, which is obviously not where they hoped to be entering the Christmas holiday.
Some Suns fans are already starting to sound the alarm, but Ayton is more worried about what will happen in April, May, and June.
“Do the best you can and the results are the results,” said Ayton. “This is regular season. At the end of the day we’re working on ourselves. I don’t care about no regular season game. It don’t really count and at the end of the day, my team and I, we’re working on our damn selves. We don’t have time for this extra shit. We’re working on ourselves for the postseason. That’s it. Everybody wants to make this a thing about regular season. So be it. Go ahead.”
Ayton, 24, is in his fifth year with the Suns and having a pretty solid season overall, with averages of 17 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game on 61% shooting.
If Phoenix wants to get back on the right side of the win column, they’ll need Ayton to continue doing his thing, but they’ll also need their two stars (Devin Booker and Chris Paul) to be fully healthy.
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