With a chance to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals, the Suns saw their fourth-quarter edge evaporate in Wednesday’s Game 4 loss to the Bucks.
Devin Booker battled foul trouble (even with help from the officials). Chris Paul struggled with 10 points and five turnovers — he’s committed 15 turnovers in the past three games. And Giannis is, well, Giannis. That all led to the Bucks outscoring Phoenix by 12 in the fourth quarter to even up the series at 2-2.
But despite dropping two straight games on the road, head coach Monty Williams’ message to his players was overwhelmingly positive and that the mistakes in Game 4 were self-inflicted.
— , (@notdubs1) July 15, 2021
After the game, ESPN aired a clip of that postgame speech from the locker room where Williams took a look at the box score and emphasized the correctable mistakes along with words of encouragement.
He said:
“Let me tell you something: All of this is correctable. We are in this situation right now because we put ourselves in this situation. And I mean it in a good way. We got three games to win two. That’s how you gotta look at it — you can’t have your heads down right now. You gotta stay together. That’s the deal.
“What happened tonight is correctable. Seventeen offensive rebounds they got, 17 turnovers we had. Think about that, guys. We had a 21-point fourth quarter. We’re making it hard on ourselves. But we can’t have our heads down. It’s emotional and tough. But we gotta know we put ourselves in this position. We got homecourt advantage. We gotta keep our spirit high. That’s the deal. Ever since I’ve been here, we talked about everything you want is on the other side of hard. This is hard. This is freaking hard. So, you gotta stick together. That’s the deal.”
After a speech like that, it’s easy to see why the Suns went from missing the playoffs to the NBA Finals in a year. The team believes in Williams — just as Williams believes in his players.
That’s the kind of speech that can turn a series around.
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