Deandre Ayton’s nasty troubles hamper Phoenix Suns’ game 3 loss as Monty Williams points out the free throw inequality

MILWAUKEE – Immediately after his team lost 120-100 to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams said he would not use his post-game press conference to complain about the official. And then he did just that.

“I’m not going to publicly complain about fouls,” said Williams. “I’m just not going to do that. But you can see – we had 16 free throws tonight. One person had 17.”

That one person was Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who logged his second 40-point game in a row thanks largely to his 13v17 night off the foul line.

The Bucks went off the line as a team 20-for-26 compared to the 11-for-16 edition of the Suns.

The administration was already a topic of conversation on Sunday, considering the story between the game assigned crew chief Scott Foster and Sun’s point guard Chris Paul.

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If you count game 3, Paul has now lost 12 consecutive playoff games in which he played with Foster as referee.

There is nothing new about an NBA coach trying to plant a seed for a cheap whistle over the course of a series. It belongs to the league as well as characteristic sneakers and backdoor alley oops.

But aside from the fouls that allowed Antetokounmpo to get into a rhythm, the inequality hurt the suns most because Deandre Ayton was called in for so many of them.

Ayton, who scored 16 points in 7v9 in 20 minutes in the first half, finished with just 18 points in 24 minutes after saddling five fouls and being benched.

“We have to learn from it,” Williams said of Ayton’s night. “We have to get to the point with the guys. It will grow from it, I promise you. “

Paul understood the situation the 22 year old center is in.

“Sometimes you get a good pipe, sometimes you get a bad pipe,” said Paul. “It’s tough man, Giannis is walking up to you at full speed like a returner, you know what I mean?”

As Williams pointed out the official, several of his players focused on the self-inflicted wounds that Phoenix had inflicted.

“It goes back to the 50/50 balls we lost,” said Jae Crowder, who had his best game of the series with 18 points in 6v7. “I feel like I’m on the street, we have to win this fight. It’s not about taking shots. It’s just about mano-a-mano to make sure your guy doesn’t get it and get the ball. Somehow “Somehow, you have to find a way. And I had a feeling when it was so close these guys were scrapping a little harder than us tonight.”

In fact, the Bucks had 13 offensive rebounds to the Sun’s six, beating them 20-2 on second chance points.

Then there was Devin Booker, who scored just 10 points in 3v14 – his lowest total in the playoffs – after scoring 58 points between Games 1 and 2 combined.

“I think I can get better [shot attempts]”, he said. “We will do it. The point of the game is to win it and I think there were other things that happened during the game. You can say it’s a make / miss game but at the end of the day you have to get the other team to miss the game and get easy chances for your team. We didn’t do that tonight. “

And Paul, who had 19 points and nine assists, got back to something he’s been hammering home all postseason: the importance of a strong finish from quarters.

Phoenix were outdone together 40-9 in the last five minutes of the second and third quarters in Game 3.

“That was big for us,” Paul said of Milwaukee, who finished third with a 24-6 lane after the Suns reduced their lead to four. “Even the second quarter, the second quarter we didn’t finish well. That’s something we talked about in all the playoffs. So you have to manage the game mainly on the street. You have to manage the end of the quarters.” . “

As different as the 2-1 v 2-0 series may seem, with Antetokounmpo dominating and the Bucks waiting for home court in the fourth game on Wednesday, Phoenix remained confident of capping the two-time MVP and regaining control of the finals.

“We have enough bodies to do this job,” Crowder said of the challenge of guarding Antetokounmpo. “We just have to do it together and get better individually. But we have enough body to make it through. We just didn’t make it tonight. “

Paul added, “We have to try somehow to build a wall.”