Kevin Durant understands the questions.
The Phoenix Suns are down 2-0 to the third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, have lost their composure and talked about dealing with adversity, but he stands on the team being together.
“Of course,” Durant said when asked after Thursday's practice if the Suns are on the same page. “We’re around each other every day. We’re committed to this grind together for sure. Do we agree on everything all the time? Nah. We have constant communication on what may work and we’ve got different perspectives in that locker room of course. That’s what great teams do, but everybody understands the mission. Everybody in this together.”
The sixth-seeded Suns will look to get back into the Western Conference first-round series in Friday’s Game 3 at Footprint Center.
“We know what the mission is from Day 1,” Durant said. “We understood what we were trying to get to and the type of team we wanted to be and where we wanted to play at the end of the season. So everybody has been coming in here with that type of mindset since training camp started. Of course we’re on the same page.”
Game 4 is Sunday in Phoenix. If necessary, Game 5 is scheduled for Tuesday in Minneapolis.
"When we lose a game, it’s definitely not going to look like that because we lost the game, but you dig deeper into who we are as a team, if you’re around us every day and see what we do and how we grind every day as a team, you wouldn’t ask those questions, but I get it,” Durant continued. “A lot of people don’t see the inside.”
Devin Booker addressed the Suns showing frustration after losing Game 2 Sunday, 105-93, as head coach Frank Vogel drew a technical foul in the fourth quarter that was just a continuation of the team taking issues with the officiating and within the team.
Finding accountability, cohesion
“Just talking to each other, holding each other accountable,” Booker said. “We're all trying to fight out there and so far this series, once it has turned, we've kind of separated instead of being together and that's everybody, top to bottom. We got to figure it out.”
Bradley Beal and Vogel had a heated exchange during a timeout in the fourth quarter. Beal said there wasn’t an issue between those two, but what was happening in the game with the defense, offensive rhythm referees and more.
“I’m like, ‘What are we doing,’” Beal said after Game 2. “We’re good.”
Vogel addressed the idea of the team having a disconnect during struggles after Thursday’s practice.
“Not more than any other team I've been a part of,” said Vogel, who coached the Lakers to the 2019-20 NBA championship.
“When things go wrong, there's always let's figure out what's happening. There's going to be frustration, especially if you get down two games in a row by double digits, but we’ve got a connected group. We do a good job working through those things.”
The Suns hope to have Grayson Allen for Game 3 as he’s suffered a right ankle sprain in third quarter of Game 1 and Game 2 and missed the remainder of those two games.
Recovery update for Allen
Scoring just seven points in the series, going 1-of-5 from 3, Allen is listed as questionable.
“It feels good,” Allen said. “Better than I thought.”
A must-win game is thrown out a lot in the playoffs, but history shows that’s truly the case for the Suns.
No team has come back from a 3-0 deficit with only four teams forcing a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a series. Boston was the last team to even up a series after being down 3-0, but lost Game 7 at home to the eighth-seeded Heat.
Durant knows the history of the game, understands it, but wants the team to focus on just winning Friday.
“You just got to go out there and do your job, man,” Durant said. “Like I said, I can give a speech about what it’s like in the playoffs or what a series is like being down 0-2 and coming back. Like I can go give that speech in the locker room all I want, but we still got to go out there and execute the game plan that we got in place.”
Durant was on the 2011-12 Oklahoma City squad that lost Game 1 and Game 2 to the top-seeded Spurs in San Antonio before winning four straight to take the conference finals series and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in Thunder franchise history.
“Go out there and play as hard as we can and get this one win,” Durant said. “Possession at a time basketball. Yeah, all that stuff is cool, but at the end of the day, these guys know what it is around this time. It’s playoff time. Everybody understands that. I don’t think we got to do anything extra.”
Have opinions about the current state of theSuns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin atdmrankin@gannett.comor contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at@DuaneRankin.
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