The bad vibes coming out of Phoenix just ooze across your television screen every time you watch this team play — you don’t need locker room access to see the bad body language or lack of energy. Also, look at the standings.
So when Kevin Durant and Mike Budenholzer had words during the broadcast of Tuesday night’s game against the Clippers, it felt emblematic of everything going on with the Suns.
After the game, both Durant and Budenholzer played the incident down. Here is what Durant said postgame, via Law Murray and Jenna West at The Athletic.
“We’re competitive as two individuals who want to see things done the right way. And sometimes my way ain’t the way that Bud wants to do it, and vice versa. And he allows me, as a player on the team, a veteran on the team, to voice my opinion. If we both didn’t care, we would never have stuff like that… I understand exactly where he is coming from. It’s just people on the outside don’t know the dynamics of the relationship.”
Durant and Budenholzer are right, this is no big deal in and of itself, little incidents like this happen every night across the NBA and go undiscussed. It just felt bigger in Phoenix because of the team’s struggles.
Which is why coming from 19 points down at the start of the fourth quarter to get the win over the Clippers on Tuesday mattered for the Suns.
With the Kyrie Irving injury in Dallas, the door has been opened for Phoenix to make a push into the play-in — Phoenix is three games behind Dallas with 20 to play, and four behind the Kings for the No. 8 seed. Neither of those are out of reach, but only if the Suns start stacking wins. Lots of them. Starting with beating Dallas on Sunday, which is a key game for Phoenix’s postseason dreams.
Phoenix has the toughest remaining schedule in the NBA. To make the postseason, the team must live up to its preseason hype.
