A ray of sunshine or thick clouds coming to Phoenix? The Suns, at the end of Game 3 next night, will know a little more about the rest of the events against the Wolves. Led 2-0, the teammates of Kevin Durant are obliged to react in order to relaunch the series.
An expected reaction as the Arizona team showed logical signs of frustration (or even tension?) during this double trip to Minnesota. However, the team's best scorer in this series (“only” 24.5 points on average) assures us: the team remains united.
“ Of course. We see each other every day. We are determined to work together, that’s for sure. Do we always agree on everything? No. We constantly communicate about what can work and we have different perspectives in this locker room, of course. That's what great teams do, but everyone understands the mission. Everyone is in the same boat “, “KD” formula.
A boat which rocks severely as the Minnesota formation gave the impression of dominating its subject in the first two meetings. Given favorites by a good part of the American press, despite their lower position in the standings, the Suns perhaps did not expect to be picked like this.
Kevin Durant doesn't want a big speech
But Kevin Durant and the others suspected that the road to the title, the objective sought with the acquisition of Bradley Beal, would not be simple. “ We have known our mission since day one. We are aware of what we want to achieve, the type of team we want to be and where we want to play at the end of the season. Everyone has arrived here with this mindset since the start of training camp. Of course we're on the same wavelength “, he insists.
According to him, the question of team cohesion is not even an internal subject, and this while Bradley Beal and Frank Vogel had a heated exchange during a timeout in the fourth quarter of the last game . The All-Star guard has since said there was no problem between them, and it was just a matter of what was happening in the game with the defense, the offensive tempo, the referees and others. .
“ When things go wrong, you have to understand what's going on. There will be frustration, especially if you are down two games in a row by at least 10 points. But we have a close-knit group. We are doing a good job to overcome these difficulties », assures the coach, who had taken a technical foul in Game 2.
While Grayson Allen could already play again, Kevin Durant calls on his teammates and him to show rigor: “ You just have to go out there and do your job. I can give a speech about what the playoffs are or what a series where you are down 0-2 and you come back is. I can give that speech in the locker room all I want, but we still have to go out on the field and execute the game plan we have in place. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Kevin Durant | 75 | 37.2 | 52.3 | 41.3 | 85.6 | 0.5 | 6.1 | 6.6 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 27.1 |
| Devin Booker | 68 | 36.0 | 49.2 | 36.4 | 88.6 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 27.1 |
| Bradley Beal | 53 | 33.3 | 51.3 | 43.0 | 81.3 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 18.2 |
| Grayson Allen | 75 | 33.5 | 49.9 | 46.1 | 87.8 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 13.5 |
| Eric Gordon | 68 | 27.8 | 44.3 | 37.8 | 79.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 11.0 |
| Jusuf Nurkic | 76 | 27.3 | 51.0 | 24.4 | 64.0 | 2.9 | 8.1 | 11.0 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 10.9 |
| Royce O'Neale | 30 | 25.1 | 41.1 | 37.6 | 69.2 | 0.7 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 8.1 |
| Bowl Bowl | 43 | 10.9 | 61.6 | 42.3 | 78.9 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 5.2 |
| Drew Eubanks | 75 | 15.6 | 60.1 | 100.0 | 77.4 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 5.1 |
| Chimezie Metu | 37 | 12.1 | 50.8 | 29.4 | 88.4 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 5.0 |
| Jordan Goodwin | 40 | 14.0 | 38.9 | 28.8 | 86.2 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 5.0 |
| Josh Okogie | 60 | 16.0 | 41.7 | 30.9 | 74.5 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
| Keita Bates Diop | 39 | 15.3 | 42.7 | 31.3 | 72.2 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 4.5 |
| Yuta Watanabe | 29 | 13.2 | 36.1 | 32.0 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.6 |
| Nassir Little | 45 | 10.2 | 46.0 | 30.0 | 85.0 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 3.4 |
| Saben Lee | 24 | 7.7 | 36.4 | 12.5 | 74.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Thaddeus Young | 10 | 8.9 | 52.4 | 0.0 | 33.3 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 2.3 |
| Udoka Azubuike | 16 | 7.1 | 69.6 | 0.0 | 23.1 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 2.2 |
| Isaiah Thomas | 6 | 3.2 | 30.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 |
| David Roddy | 17 | 3.7 | 43.5 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| Theo Maledon | 4 | 3.3 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 |
| Ish Wainright | 4 | 4.1 | 16.7 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.8 |
