Monty Williams Takes Responsibility for Suns' Recent Struggles

Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams took responsibility for the team's lack of quality in play as of late.

The Phoenix Suns are struggling. 

Without star player Devin Booker, the Suns have had a tough time navigating their recent schedule. 

Phoenix has lost their last six-of-seven and have slowly but surely slipped down the standings of the Western Conference. 

That was again the case on Monday when the Suns fell to the New York Knicks in 102-83, a game where center Deandre Ayton said the team lacked physicality. 

“I don’t even know, man. I don’t even know what’s going on. For me, I could tell you this – I’m not used to the no fight in us. I’m used to us being down a hundred, and we still are going to pull out and win the game, or we still have that mentality like we’re about to win this game," Ayton said. 

"Right now, we don’t have that, so that’s the only thing that’s going on throughout these games and why we’re losing. We just got to really lock In and fight. Right now, we can’t be thinking that somebody’s going to feel sorry for us or thinking somebody is going to save us – nobody is going to save us. We have the next game for this road trip to close this thing off strong in Cleveland and have that fight power.”

Suns coach Monty Williams agreed, adding, “It’s a mind-boggling thing, but it's happened too many times to this team. The frustration comes in for us because we’ve been a team that has been able to overcome that. When we’re not shooting the ball well, we’ve been able to play through it, and for the most part we did. They scored 102 points tonight, it wasn’t like a crazy defensive lapse night for us, even though we had a few of them.

"I thought we got down when we missed shots early, an 11-point quarter put us in the hole and then we had a 20-point quarter. Those things happen. We ended up winning the second half, it’s just a crazy game. Mentally and emotionally I have to get our guys stronger because we haven’t been able to handle those types of lapses this year, not consistently like we have in the past.”

The Suns recently welcomed back help such Landry Shamet and Cam Payne, but they weren't much help on Monday. The duo (both returning from injury) combined for 14 total points in the loss. 

Phoenix also hopes to regain the likes of Cam Johnson sooner than later, who has yet to return to team activities as of Monday. 

The Suns still have plenty of time left to right the ship. Williams, the NBA's reigning Coach of the Year, is well respected across the league as being a leader of men. 

We'll see if that can play a role in turning the tide in Phoenix. 

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