MILWAUKEE
(AP) — Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton said the foul trouble he
had in Game 3 won’t impact the way he plays the rest of the NBA
Finals.
Ayton
finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, but played less than 25
minutes in Phoenix’s 120-100 loss to the
Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday. He ended up with five fouls,
the first time this postseason he committed more than four in a
single game.
“I’m not
going to let none of those foul calls change my aggression,” Ayton
said
Phoenix owns
a 2-1 lead in the series heading into Game 4 on Wednesday.
Ayton is
averaging 16.7 points and 13 rebounds in the Finals. The Suns’ lack
of size makes it imperative that Ayton stay on the floor.
“I’m not
going to let that game bother me, to be honest,” Ayton said.
Ayton said he
planned to “just show my hands early, letting the refs know where
I’m at, feeling the refs out throughout the game, on my
physicality, how I’m playing my defense.”
Milwaukee
would like to get Ayton in foul trouble again Wednesday night.
Ayton said he has done his homework and plans to avoid the same
problems the rest of the series.
“I think
that’s an awareness that I see on the court where they’re trying to
attack me,” Ayton said, “so it’s just me bracing and being aware of
what’s coming next.”
TUCKER’S TRANSITION
Even as he’s
in the NBA Finals, Bucks forward P.J. Tucker said he is still
getting accustomed to playing with his new teammates after coming
over from the Houston Rockets in March.
“When you get
traded in the middle of the year people don’t know how hard it is,”
Tucker said. “It’s so hard to go from one team to another, whole
change of scenery, new people, new everything. It’s a 24-, 48-hour
turnaround and you’re playing a game.
“For me,
that’s something I pride myself in, being able to be a chameleon,
kind of get in, feel the situation out, what I need to do to help
us win, and so on and so forth. That’s something to this day I’m
figuring out every day, just trying to get better, be a better
teammate, be a better vet, be a better player.”
CROWDER’S FINALS EXPERIENCE
Suns forward
Jae Crowder is the only Phoenix player with previous Finals
experience, as he helped the Miami Heat win last year’s Eastern
Conference title.
That Finals
experience was different from most, with the entire postseason
taking place in the Walt Disney World bubble. Even so, Crowder
believes he can draw upon those memories while talking to
teammates.
“I definitely
tried to use that experience leading up to this point of helping my
teammates, letting them know that it’s hard, it’s very hard
basketball, two teams colliding, giving maximum effort for it all,”
said Crowder, who scored 18 points and shot 6-of-7 from three-point
range in Game 3. “It’s the hardest thing we’ll do as a professional
athlete, I feel like.”
But Crowder
doesn’t believe his successful playoff series against the Bucks
last season has any bearing on this year. Crowder averaged 15.2
points and shot 43.1% from three-point range when Miami upset the
top-seeded Bucks in the second round.
“I don’t
think they go hand in hand at all,” Crowder said. “I honestly feel
like those guys, respectfully, are better than they were last year.
And I feel like me as a player, I’m better than I was last
year.”
WAITING AND WAITING
Players
offered different opinions on the playoff schedule that gives them
two days off with no travel between Game 3 and Game 4.
Bucks guard
Jrue Holiday liked the extra rest, particularly since they had so
little time to get ready for the start of this series.
“It’s great,”
Holiday said. “The season has been weird. We won Game 6 of the
Conference Finals. We landed at 2 that morning and had to leave 6
at night to go to Phoenix.”
Suns guard
Cameron Payne acknowledged the potential benefits, but would have
preferred a shorter wait.
“Shoot, I’d
rather go ahead and play, especially when you lose a game,” Payne
said. “You’re ready to play 30 minutes after the game is over.”
EX-IRISH TEAMMATE
Bucks guard
Pat Connaughton said he managed to watch a little bit of Major
League Baseball’s Home Run Derby on Monday. He got to see former
Notre Dame baseball teammate Trey Mancini, now with the Baltimore
Orioles.
Mancini has made a successful
comeback this year after sitting out the 2020 season to undergo
chemotherapy for stage 3 colon cancer. He reached the final round
of
the Home Run Derby before losing to New York Mets slugger Pete
Alonso.
“I was on the
team when he won the Home Run Derby at the Big East Tournament down
in Clearwater, Florida, and I remember him saying to our assistant
coach Chuck Ristano, ‘If I ever got to
the MLB Home Run Derby, I’ll have you pitch to me,’ “ Connaughton
said. “And (Ristano) pitched to him last night.”