Kevin Durant believes the playoffs are presenting the Suns with their first real test since he was acquired from Brooklyn at the trade deadline, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. An MCL sprain and a sprained left ankle limited Durant to eight regular season games with Phoenix. They were all victories, which made a lot of observers believe the new-look Suns might steamroll their way through the postseason.
It was somewhat surprising to see the Clippers win Game 1 in Phoenix and then stay competitive for much of Game 2 before the Suns pulled away. Durant expected the series to be challenging, but he’s happy with his team’s position after two games.
“Towards the end of the season, we played some solid ball, but that’s not much you can take from that,” he said. “A lot of teams weren’t playing their guys. This is kind of like the first real look at us as a team against some great competition. I like where we are. Unfortunately, we lost Game 1, but it’s always good to get a W. I’m looking forward to the next game.”
There’s more from Phoenix:
- The Suns have been looking for someone to give them consistent playoff minutes alongside their four stars, and Torrey Craig has filled that role so far, Rankin adds. In addition to guarding Kawhi Leonard, Craig posted a personal playoff high of 22 points in the series opener and followed that with 17 points in Game 2. “We need him to continue to be confident to shoot the ball,” Durant said. “He understands that teams are going to play a little gimmicky and throw a big on him or just leave him wide open and give him the 3. He’s got to make them pay and I think he’s been doing a great job of it so far.”
- Chris Paul addressed his 13-game losing streak in playoff games officiated by Scott Foster, which came to an end with the Suns’ victory Tuesday night, Rankin states in another Arizona Republic story. “The league knows what it is,” Paul said. “Can’t control it. Haven’t been able to control all the other ones so it’s not going to change now.”
- X-rays taken on Paul’s right hand after Game 2 came back negative, tweets Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.
The Scott foster thing is actually kind of crazy after reading the article and looking at the list of games.
That being said I’m not a believer in conspiracy. And I’m sure it can become a self fulfilling prophecy where you see the referee you don’t like and it immediately is in your head.
I’m kind of interested in why so many players, Paul included, have implied that it’s personal, rather than just a bad matchup. We’ll probably not know until Paul retires, but it’s interesting.
If it was once or twice you might be able to get away with calling it a conspiracy theory.
(A 60 year old term coined by the CIA to prevent Americans from considering the CIA as a suspect in the JFK assassination)
But this is 0 for 13… That’s smoke, and where there is smoke, there is fire. Thats not a conspiracy to look into, its due diligence.
I expect nothing in terms of accountability, or this issue even being addressed on the part of the NBA. This is when they go silent typically