Monty Williams: Suns Clearly Didn’t Give Adelaide 36ers Enough Respect

It wasn’t supposed to end up this way, the Suns losing their preseason opener to the Adelaide 36ers of Australia.

But that’s what happened on Sunday, as the host Suns became the first NBA team to lose to a team from Australia’s National Basketball League. The final score: Adelaide 134, Suns 124.

Granted, it was just a preseason game, but Suns starters Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges, Deandre Ayton and Cam Johnson each played 22 minutes. Phoenix was already getting beat when all the aforementioned were on the floor.

“Just didn’t give them the respect they deserved as a pro team,” Suns coach Monty Williams told reporters, via Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports. “It’s a great opportunity for us to learn.”

Keep in mind this is the same Suns team that was blown out in Game 7, at home, against the Mavericks to end last season in the Western Conference semifinals.

The men who did the most damage for the 36ers were no less than guards Robert Franks and rookie Craig Randall, the starting backcourt. Neither could seemingly miss. Randall went 9-of-17 shooting on 3-pointers to finish with 35 points. Franks was 6-of-10 on threes and scored 32.

“I just thought they played hard,” Williams said, via Olson. “You can look at the shot-making and be like ‘that was the game’ but I thought they played extremely hard. I thought they played like this was the game of their lives and they did play the game of their lives. … Australian players are tough. And they played physical basketball. They played in 0.5 and were the aggressors. A lot of times, they just beat us off the dribble.

“They made some tough shots off the dribble from 3 and at the basket. They were aggressive all night. They took the win. It wasn’t anything that we gave them. They took it, and so that’s a credit to them.”

It was just a preseason opener, but it could also serve as an eye-opener to the Suns.