Suns Must Look at the Positives After First Preseason Blunder

Despite a shocking preseason loss to the Adelaide 36ers, the Phoenix Suns have no reason to panic.

The NBA finals take place in June, which means the Phoenix Suns have a nine month window to grow and develop into a championship-caliber basketball team.

Despite concerns over the Suns dropping their first preseason game to the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL 134-124 on Sunday night, Phoenix fans have no reason to push the panic button just yet.

While the Suns are now the first NBA team to lose an international exhibition since 2016, they need to take this game as a learning experience rather than a discouraging loss.

“Flush it quickly and move on,” Suns center Deandre Ayton said. 

“This is preseason. We’re still learning at the end of the day. It’s unacceptable, but at the same time we’re just getting back and we’re just trying to polish up some things to get ourselves better.”

The Suns are not only trying to shake off their rust after a long offseason, but made sure not to overplay their starters as seven players came off the bench. The starters only played 22 minutes each.

This may be an indicator that the Suns' main priority was not to capture a win, but rather get used to playing with one another again.

“I played them a bit longer than I wanted to,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said. 

"They got competitive and wanted to come back. I was not going to let those guys come back, I wanted to play them in seven-minute spurts tonight. I did not mix the lineups at all tonight. I want those guys to get used to playing with each other.”

It may only be a preseason game, but the Suns know that they must improve. They are not taking this preseason loss lightly which is an encouraging sign as the team is hungry and motivated to win each and every game no matter what is at stake.

“It is just our habits,” Suns forward Mikal Bridges said. “When we mess up, we know we have to be better. There was frustration when both units were out on the court. There were just things we were messing up on and trying to help teach the guys. 

"You want to win every time you are out there and play at our best in our way. It felt like that today.”

One preseason game does not defy a team. The Suns are bound to go through their ups and downs during the 2022-23 campaign, but the important thing is they must rally together once challenges are thrown their way and stay united as one cohesive unit. 

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