Phoenix – After his competitive fire helped take the Phoenix Suns to a return victory that they desperately needed, the superstar Kevin Durant passionately criticized the reaction to a brief and heated exchange he had with coach Mike Budenholzer early in the game on Tuesday.
The TNT cameras caught Durant and Budenholzer barking one to each other for a waiting time in the first quarter of Phoenix 119-117 on the Los Angeles Clippers. After Budenholzer grabbed Durant's left forearm, an attempt to stop 15 times All-Star so that they could continue the conversation that emerged from a disagreement with respect to an offensive set, Durant moved away his arm and continued walking towards the bank before turning around to change more words.
After causing a manifestation of a 23 -point deficit, Durant expressed dismay that the interaction became fodder for the content of social networks and the speculation about the problems of a Phoenix team that had lost 11 of 14 games before gathering to overcome the clowers.
“That is what usually happens when you don't know the dynamics of the relationship,” Durant said after scoring 19 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter. “You attract something on television, you get an appointment and now you push that narrative as if I and Bud did not do that, all the time. [are] Competitive as two people who want to see things done in the right way, and sometimes my path is not the way Bud wants to do it and vice versa.
“He allows me as a player in the team, a veteran in the team, to express my opinion. If we didn't care, we would never have things like that, do you know what I am saying? So I'm glad that victory will sweep all those stupid things under the carpet. Because people could not wait. Even some people in Phoenix, here, here they could not run with that and say,” this is the reason why the team is not playing Well, that is why, therefore, for that. But we are going man, that shows that Bud is really careful to try to straighten this ship and try to win basketball games. “
As Durant said, there have been several occasions this season when he shouted Budenholzer during the games, and Durant said there will surely be more cases. Durant said he wanted television broadcasts to stand out when Budenholzer and he are “smiling at the bank and that we touch on the chest and hit our hands” after their discussions result in a solution.
“We are like old friends or whatever we are always taking and speaking among us,” said Budenholzer. “I thought about his energy and his voice tonight were great. I think there was some offensive game. I wanted something, I wanted something [else] And it is the beauty of basketball. But really from that moment, his voice and he spoke (comments, ideas, suggestions) was really a large part of the night. “
The Suns followed 19 points entering the last quarter and took the front forever when Devin Booker ended up with a left -handed tray in transition from a Collin Gillespie diet. According to ESPN Research, it was the greatest return of the fourth quarter in the history of the franchise.
Durant accredited Budenholzer's settings for putting the Suns in a position to achieve their greatest return victory of the season, exceeding a rally of a 21 -point deficit also against the clippers in a victory on the road on October 31.
Durant specifically cited Budenholzer's decision to insert Gillespie, a guard in a bidirectional contract that the superstar praised as “a dog”, in the alignment at the end of the third quarter. Gillespie did not get out of the game until 4 seconds were contributing with 10 points, 3 assists and several power plays in 15 minutes, since the Suns surpassed the clippers by 21 with him on the court.
“The coach made a great adjustment by throwing it there,” Durant said. “The coach was perfect, to be honest. Every adjustment he made was incredible. He was a catalyst for everything.”
Durant's emotion was exhibited during the return of the Suns. After the Suns cut the advantage to 10 at the beginning of the last quarter, Durant stopped about half of the court and stirred his hand towards the crowd for a time of waiting for the clippers, trying to generate some energy from the crowd sold of PHX Arena that had splashed the suns with Boos before. When fans did not respond instantly, Durant approached the stands and stirred both arms, finally caused a roar.
“I mean, just looking around after we were 20, it seemed that a terrible time were going on, and I hate putting that type of product on the court,” Durant said. “I know that we must focus on the game and focus on the game plan and not look at the crowd and not interact with the crowd, keep it professional. Everything s — They tell us. But I examine the crowd and see, because we need them, we need that energy. I looked around and only seemed dead and only the way of unleashing is doing some works.
The Suns (29-33), one of the most disappointing teams of the NBA this season, remains in the 11th place in the classification of the West Conference. Phoenix is three games behind the Dallas Mavericks devastated by the injury for the last place of the conference.
“I told the boys, a man, we should not focus on the overview,” Durant said. “Everything should be fine at the time. That's what we focus on. The next possession should be the most important. We would love to say that this victory will ignite us and press us to win some in a row and have a storybook that ends us from us [playoffs]. All that sounds good to say it, but for us it is the next possession, the next day is important.
“We cannot focus too much on the line because we don't have that luxury to do that. So stay at the time as much as we can, enjoy where we are and put your best effort at that time and see what happens.”
