PHOENIX — Rebounding, physicality and the third quarter have been a problem for the Phoenix Suns all series.
Having Devin Booker out since late in the third quarter of Game 2 with a right hamstring strain has only made it even more challenging.
They’ve shot a horrendous 11 of 53 from 3 in their last two games.
And the disparity in free throw attempts in Sunday night’s 118-103 Game 4 loss in New Orleans had Suns coach Monty Williams fuming. The Pelicans attempted 42 free throws (made 32) while the Suns attempted 15 (made 10).
“You can slice it any way you want to,” Williams said. “In a playoff game that physical, that’s amazing, OK. Coaches shouldn’t have to come up to the microphone and feel like they’re going to get their heads cut off for speaking the truth.”
This isn’t what the Suns had in mind when entering the postseason as the No. 1 overall seed. They’re tied 2-2, but sticking with the mindset that fueled their run to the finals last year and made them the NBA’s best team this season.
“We stay the course,” former Arizona Wildcat Deandre Ayton said after Sunday’s loss. “It’s the playoffs. Everybody is good. That’s how it’s supposed to go. Play hard and may the best team win. We’re not really overwhelming ourselves with that. Pat on their backs for playing hard, but this is a series and this is the playoffs.
“We’ve just got to get back home and get back on our feet and just handle our business at home.”
The Suns regained homecourt advantage with Friday’s 114-111 Game 3 win.
So even though the Pelicans took Game 4, all the Suns need to do is win their possible two remaining home games, starting with Tuesday’s Game 5 at Footprint Center, and they’ll advance to the conference semifinals.
“For us, I have the utmost confidence in our group,” Suns forward Cam Johnson said. “So in terms of there being a momentum shift, they’ve got to come back to Phoenix and we’re going back to Phoenix and we know how big it is to play in our city and how important it is to us.”
Game 6 is Thursday in New Orleans. If there is a Game 7, it’ll be Saturday in Phoenix.
The Suns will likely enter Game 5 without Booker, who is working his way back from his hamstring injury. Williams didn’t even want to entertain the thought of Booker returning just a week removed from suffering the injury.
“We can’t worry about that,” Williams said after Sunday’s Game 4. “The guys who are on the floor, we just did it the other day. We played harder. We didn’t shoot the 3-ball well and we won the game.”
Williams admitted the Suns miss their three-time All-Star, who scored 31 points in the first half in that Game 2 loss, but Ayton isn’t in a rush to see Booker return.
“I just want my dude to be healthy and ready to go,” Ayton said. “We trust him. We know he’s handling business. We see him handling his business every day, but I would just love him to be in great shape when he gets out there. Super healthy, but until then, it’s the next man up. Nothing’s changed. We’re not second guessing anything or any lineups we put out there.”
Johnson has started in Booker’s place the last two games. A finalist for the NBA’s Sixth Man Award, Johnson is averaging 11.3 points in this series, but is shooting just 11 of 29 in the last three games after a 5-of-6 blitz in Game 1.
“There is some thought to tinkering a little bit,” Williams said Monday afternoon back in Phoenix. “There’s different ways to do it, though. I think one way is to matchup better with their lineups that have been effective. That doesn’t necessarily have to mean you change the personnel, so to speak. I think one thing that happens is when you lose someone like Book, everybody moves up the pecking order and that’s a different rotation in itself.”
The eighth-seeded Pelicans are the only team that entered the playoffs with a losing record, but they’ve more than held their own in making it essentially a best-of-3 series.
Brandon Ingram posted his third 30-point game Sunday while Jonas Valanciunas posted another monstrous double-double of 26 points and 15 rebounds with five being offensive boards.
“We played together,” Valanciunas said. “That’s a big key. It’s fun to play this way. When everyone’s touching the ball, moving, and finding the teammates open, setting loose screens. That’s such a good feeling to play this way — on top of winning the game.”
The Suns are shooting 29.3% from 3 in this series after finishing the regular season ninth in 3-point shooting at 36.9%. Only Chicago is misfiring worse from 3 in the playoffs.
“We just have not shot the ball the way that we all used to seeing our team shoot,” Williams said. “I’m confident that we will (Tuesday).”
Beyond the numbers, New Orleans is winning the physicality battle that has Chris Paul wondering if he’s entered Marvel’s quantum realm and traveled back in time.
“It’s like the old #NBA ain’t it?” said Paul, who scored just four points on 2-of-8 shooting in Game 4 after churning out 28 in Game 3. “I asked one of the refs, ‘We playing the old NBA or the new NBA?’ I was fortunate enough to play in both of them. We’ve just got to figure out which one it’s going to be. Whatever it is, we’ve got to be able to adjust early.”
Williams said Monday there’s been some “gray areas” in terms of the physical nature of the series, as he made reference to Pelican rookie Herbert Jones’ shoulder hit to Ayton’s face in Game 1.
“We’ve shown the ability to hit first and get rebounds,” he said. “We did it in Game 3. Last night, we had another situation where we gave up some 50-50 balls. We weren’t first to the floor the way that we were in Game 3.”
