The Phoenix Suns were eliminated from the NBA playoffs on Sunday evening by the Dallas Mavericks. Given that this squad came into the postseason with championship aspirations, clearly the loss hurt.
What made things even worse, however, was precisely how Phoenix went out. Losing is bad. But this group fell behind early, was down by 40+ points at certain junctures of the game, and eventually they ended up losing Game 7 by 33 points.
Big yikes.
Among the lowlights for the Suns on Sunday was a weird beef that erupted between head coach Monty Williams and disgruntled big man Deandre Ayton.
Monty said something to Deandre Ayton, he didn’t like what he heard back and now Biyombo is coming in. The Suns are a mess right now.
— Jeremy Grant Schnell (@JGSports_6) May 16, 2022
DA had words for Monty on that substitution. Monty walked towards him and asked, “what did you say?” when two coaches stepped in between them. #Suns
— Mr.ORNG (@PHXMRORNG) May 16, 2022
Afterward, Williams confirmed that something between him and Ayton had gone awry.
Monty Williams on Deandre Ayton only playing 17 minutes tonight: “It’s internal.”
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) May 16, 2022
On Monday, Fox Sports broadcaster Skip Bayless relayed what rapper Lil Wayne told him about the Williams-Ayton strife.
“From what our man Lil Wayne told me, he was sitting across [from the Suns bench], Monty got so upset with Ayton that he said, ‘You freaking quit on us'”
Skip Bayless with some insight on what happened between Monty Williams & Deandre Aytonpic.twitter.com/SbtNojdheH
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 16, 2022
“From what our man Lil Wayne told me, he was sitting across [from the Suns bench], Monty got so upset with Ayton that he said, ‘You freaking quit on us.’ That led to an exchange where each Monty and Ayton had to be restrained from going at each other,” Bayless said.
Again – yikes.
Lil Wayne had a surprisingly prominent role in the Suns’ series with the Dallas Mavericks. It’s unclear as to why, though.
Time will tell if his presence will continue to be a thing in the NBA playoffs now that they have been eliminated.
The Suns have been taking a lot of Ls over the last 24 hours – and this was just the most recent one.
Russell Wilson reacts to Ciara’s provocative photos. https://t.co/glyElbAbF4
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 16, 2022
Will this franchise be able to regain some semblance of its self-respect back in the coming days, weeks and months?
Time will tell.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
