The Phoenix Suns lost to the San Antonio Spurs last night (3/25) and Bradley Beal admitted to NBA reporters that the Suns thought it would be easy to beat the Spurs without star rookie Victor Wembanyama.
“It’s disappointment,” Beal said, via ESPN. “We came in here and laid an egg. We thought it was going to be easy with no Wemby. Just got our ass kicked. They came out aggressive, just like Coach told us they would, and we didn’t respond. Well, we did, but we didn’t withstand their punches.”
The Suns lost to the Spurs by a final score of 104-102. Phoenix is now in eighth place in the Western Conference standings despite having three of the best players in the NBA in Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
“It’s just unacceptable to lose that game,” Suns head coach Frank Vogel said. “For our guys, we all said the right things. We all did the right preparation. But we didn’t play with the necessary focus in this position throughout, I would say, the first half.”
Seeds 1-6 automatically qualify for the 2024 postseason, while seeds 7-10 compete in the play-in tournament.
If the regular season ended today, the Suns would face the Dallas Mavericks in the 7-8 play-in tournament game in Dallas.
“We knew they were going to play harder [than Saturday’s game] and we knew they were going to play with more focus,” Durant said. “They got momentum at the end of the third and kind of cruised from there. The game is about momentum.”
The Suns are 10th in the NBA in points per game, 16th in points per game allowed and 10th in net rating.
“I’m not into disrespecting our opponents,” Booker said. “These guys are NBA guys. There are some talented young players over there. … We weren’t unprepared. We knew what to expect.”
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