It has been a pretty brutal start to the season for the Phoenix Suns. They are 1-4 on the year and Monday night saw them lose to a Golden State Warriors team that they easily dispatched during the Play-In tournament earlier this year. Despite holding a 17-point lead at one point, the Suns were unable to hang on even though Dillon Brooks drew a technical foul from Draymond Green which got the fiery Warriors veteran ejected from the game.
The Warriors simply played better and after the game Golden State center Charles Bassey, who had to fill in for Green after the ejection, brutally called out the Suns for what he saw on the floor: "It was all fake. Being physical doesn't mean you have to scuffle with guys. That doesn't mean you tough…What they doing — it's so fake. That's some fake toughness man."
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That might be tough for the Suns to hear, but Bassey may be onto something. He feels that the way the Suns like to get into dustups during games and the way they scuffle is almost performative to a certain extent while he says that actually being physical means fighting for rebounds and taking every possession seriously which is not something Phoenix has done up to this point in the season.
The good news for Phoenix is that it is still early. The Suns have only played five games so it is too early to hit the panic button but the fact that Devin Booker has already called out the team's chemistry and the fact that they have had some sloppy losses, with their only win coming against a Warriors team that was resting both Steph Curry and Draymond Green, is definite cause for concern, if not outright alarm just yet.
Suns need to get things turned around in a hurry
They still have Booker and Brooks healthy which is good because without that duo Phoenix would really be in trouble. Jalen Green has really struggled thus far though and if they can get him right at some point that could be what gets Phoenix out of its funk and back to playing the type of basketball it is used to playing.
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The Western Conference is stacked though and getting behind the eight ball before Christmas is not a good recipe for success. The Suns have the talent to get back on track but maybe they need to stop dealing in "fake toughness" as Bassey said and start playing harder and as a more cohesive unit.
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