Suns deal with worst pain of lives after Finals failure

Losing in the NBA Finals left the Phoenix Suns struggling to deal with a pain like they had never felt, having come close to a dream only to fall short.

“I haven’t felt a hurt like this in my life,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “This isn’t something you want to feel.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 50 points to power the Milwaukee Bucks to a 105-98 victory over the Suns to win the best-of-seven championship series four games to two.

The Suns, who won the first two games at home, dropped four in a row for the first time all season at the worst time all season.

“It’s hard to get here and I wanted it so bad,” Suns coach Monty Williams said before choking up, his words emerging as a slow whisper. “It’s hard to process right now. It’s hard. That’s all.

“I’ve never dealt with this kind of hurt as a head coach. There’s just a pain that goes with your season being over, but I’ve never dealt with this. I know this is going to hurt for a while.”

Suns guard Chris Paul was in the NBA Finals for the first time in his 16-year career at age 36 and still hungers for his first NBA title.

“You’re just trying to figure out what you could have did more. It’s tough,” Paul said. “Great group of guys, hell of a season, but this one is going to hurt for a while.”

Describing the Suns locker room as “just lost,” Paul said he intends to channel the pain into harder work for next season and a chance to return to the finals after being somewhat of a shock in this year’s playoffs.

“For me it just means back to work. Nothing more, nothing less,” Paul said. “Ain’t no moral victories or whatnot. We sort of saw what it takes to get there and hopefully we see what it takes to get past that.”