The Phoenix Suns expected to return to the NBA Finals this year. Unfortunately, their attempt to match last season’s run came up short when they ran into a surprisingly ferocious Dallas Mavericks squad.
While Dallas sending Phoenix home was surprising, what was similarly fascinating is how little trouble the Golden State Warriors subsequently had dispatching the Mavericks in the conference finals.
This week, Suns star Mikal Bridges appeared on JJ Redick’s “The Old Man and The Three” podcast and offered some thoughts on what happened in that second-round series.
His thoughts were fairly illuminating.
“[We] didn’t think that would happen,” said Bridges.
“Never. Especially [against] Dallas. Dallas is good, but besides these playoffs, I don’t think I [had] lost to them. The Suns hadn’t lost to them in years. So it’s just like every time that we play them, [we think], ‘Oh, we have their number, we have their number.’ Then, the mother**kers got us.”
Bridges went on to add that he was deeply embarrassed by the fact that the Suns not only lost, but got blown out by 33 points on their own home floor in Game 7 of that series.
All in all, this year’s Western Conference semifinals series between Dallas and Phoenix was very fiery. Between Luka Doncic mocking Suns fans’ appearances and his brutal two-word insult for Devin Booker – it was just one bit of disrespect after another.
Katya Elise Henry exposes Tyler Herro’s cheating ways. https://t.co/Y3t6dXWVBA
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 4, 2022
It will be interesting to see what happens between these two teams going forward. Both are young – and theoretically there should be many more consequential playoff battles between them.
How will the Suns-Mavericks rivalry shake out in the years to come?
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.
