Suns Looking to 'Win At All Costs' as Postseason Grind Continues
The Phoenix Suns are currently up 3-1 over the Los Angeles Clippers, a fairly comfortable position for any team in a series. The Suns can potentially put the Clippers behind them with a upcoming Game 5 at home tomorrow, though Devin Booker knows nothing for he and his teammates will come easy.
"Win at all costs," said Booker on Phoenix's postseason mentality.
"All the regular season stuff - the statistics, the stats, the efficiency, all that is off the table. We all have one main goal. Each game is it's own new project, and that's how we view it. Each game has it's own personality. You have to have a quick memory win or less, [move] on to the next one until the job's finished."
The Suns have mostly progressed through their three wins off the backs of Booker and Kevin Durant, who have played over 40 minutes per game while shouldering most of the load offensively.
Suns coach Monty Williams said after Game 4's win the extra minutes Phoenix's starters are playing is a tough with how the schedule is set up. Suns-Clippers was the only series not to have a multiple-day break between Games 1-4 before a two-day rest as Game 5 approaches on Tuesday.
“Yeah I think just looking at the way the schedule was set up, playing every other day is not conducive to it. But now we have part of why I did it today, was we have a couple days to recover. But when you’re playing every other day in the playoffs, I’m like there goes load management," joked Williams.
"But I think it’s something that we are concerned about as it piles up yeah. But hopefully we can take advantage of these days. And I will say this when I talk to our people and they look at how our guys are running around. It’s not like the regular season. We’re not playing at that same pace. And so the load can be a bit different with the minutes that the guys are playing."
Williams says the Suns - though they keep special watch on minutes and usage - are prepared for the grueling postseason.
“But we talk a lot. Yesterday we had an off day. Those guys didn’t do anything. They get their treatment in and they come in feeling a lot better. But I will say this; I believe our guys are trained for these types of moments," Williams said after Game 4.
"But tonight, I thought, we got Book down about three minutes, Kev was out there a little bit longer. But when I watched him, he wasn’t streaking all over the place. From that standpoint, I never saw him labor. And so we just have to keep watching it."
The opportunity for rest exists if the Suns can close the Clippers out on Tuesday. If the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix both close their respective series out tomorrow, Game 1 of their second-round matchup will be in Denver on Saturday.
If either series goes to six or seven games, the second round of action will begin Tuesday, May 1.
