The NBA finals of the last season was simply very exciting as both the teams overcame several problems to reach the last hurdle. While the Phoenix Suns took a decisive 2-0 lead, the Milwaukee Bucks came from behind to win their second NBA Championship in franchise history.
After the finals defeat Suns head coach Monty Williams has gone back to the drawing board to scrutinise his mistakes. The areas where his team lacked against a feisty Bucks team.
Not many people predicted the Suns to reach the finals but Chris Paul’s arrival changed the tide for them. The veteran point guard formed a great relationship with Devin Booker and the duo wreaked havoc in the NBA last season. Now with Paul staying till 2024-25season, the Suns will come out with rejuvenated energy to go all the way this time.
it was Monty Williams’ best season as a coach but still, those consecutive losses in the finals make him lose sleep at night. In a finals episode of ‘Black History Always’ podcast, Williams highlighted how the wearing of mental toughness alongside fatigue led to the downfall of the Suns in the finals.
“I’ve gone back to that moment a ton in the past few weeks, trying to figure out anything that I could’ve done in that moment. Because all you had to do is win 1 quarter, which is a tough task on the road against the best team in the NBA,” Williams highlighted.
“And you go through a ton of mental gymnastics and try to figure out something you could’ve said, or a play you could’ve run or an adjustment. And that’s something that will probably stay with me for a long time.” the Suns head coach added pointing out the mental stress that his team went through.
Looking back at trying to win on the road at Fiserv Forum, Williams commented, “I go back to our Game 3 preparation. To get ready mentally and emotionally for that game, I felt like I probably over thought it, in regard to the preparation just because we lost. If we’d have won that game, I probably wouldn’t have thought about it at all, but because we lost, I just ruminated about it a ton.”
Lastly he mentions the irony of how either side beating each other four times in a row ended in the Bucks’ favour due to their right timing. “The irony is, we beat them 4 times in a row; they beat us 4 times in a row. They just did it at the right time.”
“That’s something that as a coach and as a leader will bother me for a long time, but it will also drive me to be better in those moments if the opportunity is awarded to me again, he concluded.
