Suns hungry for win before break
Ricky Rubio is figuring out an entirely different playbook on limited rest these days.
“Trying to learn how to be a dad and professional basketball (player) too,” Rubio said with a smile Tuesday afternoon.
The sleepless nights aren’t going to change anytime soon as Liam Rubio was just born last month. So first-time papa Rubio must get comfortable with this new part of his life.
This is so relatable to the current state of the Phoenix Suns.
They’re struggling, short-handed and have played an odd schedule that recently had a 12-game stretch with nine being on the road, but must battle through those elements in order to find their way out of it.
“We can’t blame it on the schedule or injuries because things are going to happen and we just have to be ready for adversity,” Rubio said. “One of the sayings (Monty Williams) taught us at the beginning of the season was we got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Right now, we feel uncomfortable and we just have to be willing to learn.”
Losers of six of their last seven games, the Suns (21-33) look to go into the NBA all-star break with victory Wednesday night against Golden State (12-42) at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
“We want to get a big win before the break,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “I think the whole NBA right now, after the emotional past couple of weeks that we’ve been through, need to clear some headspace. Get away and I think that six or seven-day break that we have off will be important to this team moving forward.”
The Suns will once again be without Frank Kaminsky (right patella stress fracture), Aron Baynes (left hip soreness) and Dario Saric (left ankle sprain) as all three are ruled out for Wednesday’s game and may have to play minus Deandre Ayton, who missed Monday’s 125-100 road loss against the Los Angeles Lakers with left ankle soreness.
That’s an uncomfortable situation, but one Phoenix must embrace to get the win they seek Wednesday against the Warriors.
“Winning the way we want to is uncomfortable,” Williams said. “What we’ve done this year is uncomfortable. We’ve won big games over teams like Houston, Philly, Boston (and) Dallas. We’ve lost emotional games to teams we felt like we should’ve won. That’s an uncomfortable thing that we have to get used to.”
Williams pointed to his playing days with the San Antonio Spurs or even with the U.S Olympic team, saying there were “uncomfortable” moments that forced growth.
“I firmly believe it’s hard to take that leap until you go through deep hurt,” Williams continued. “I think you got to be comfortable with that. If you’re going to be in a playoff series, multiple playoff series, you’re going to have a loss that’s going to make you just want to cry for days because you know you could’ve done one or two things to win.”
Williams turned that thought over and noted how a team can have a huge win, but then come out the next game, forget their fundamentals and lose.
“I think there’s a level of growth we have to make in that area,” Williams said. “We have to be comfortable with how it is right now because we want to take a leap these last 20-plus games and then the summer is going to be a huge growth moment for us also.”
Right now, the Suns are 6 1⁄2 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference held by Memphis (27-26), which owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over them after winning the season series, 3-1.
The Suns have just 28 games left, but they hope to get a win Wednesday to go into the all-star break with positive momentum and come out of that excited to make a run regardless of their circumstances.
“We’ve got to close out this first half of the season strong,” Suns wing Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “Take a little time, clear our minds and come back ready to make a good, big push at the end of the season.”