Frank Vogel postgame press conference after the Phoenix Suns (12-10) fall to the Sacramento Kings (12-8) 114-106
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Without Kevin Durant (ankle), Bradley Beal (back) and Grayson Allen (groin) Phoenix got off to a really hot start tonight with an 11-2 run, then it was very back and forth the rest of the first half until the Suns closed it on a 12-3 run. Then, the Kings outscored Phoenix 33-12 in the third quarter as the Suns shot 28% and 0-for-8 from three. Phoenix made a valiant effort with some big threes in the fourth, but De’Aaron Fox’s 23 fourth quarter points carried the Kings to the victory. Devin Booker finished the night with 28 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds, while Eric Gordon added 19 and Jusuf Nurkic had 15 and 9 boards. Fox ended with 34 and 7 assists, while Domantas Sabonis had 15 and 17 rebounds.
The Suns have now lost four of their last five and will look to bounce back next Tuesday night against the 10-12 Warriors at Footprint Center.
Top Quotes from Frank Vogel (via Suns)
(On the performance during the third quarter and how it affected the game…)
“Yeah, that’s when they made their move. Credit them: their coaching staff did a good job mixing coverages throughout the game – not just the third – and we saw three or four different coverages on (Devin) Booker in the first half; we knew they were going to throw the kitchen sink at him and they did. During that third, we had some possessions where their defense slowed us down, we had some possessions where we had some clean open looks and we just missed them. We shot 0-for-8 from the three, so just a stress where we got cold and it was a costly quarter.”
(On holding De’Aaron Fox to 11 points up until the fourth quarter and what changed to let him get going…)
“That’s his time. He is one of the best in the league in crunch time and in the fourth and we also threw a number of different coverages out there at him and a lot of times, the ball finds (Domantas) Sabonis who is another elite playmaker and they got shooting all over the floor, so that is a big reason why they were one of the best teams in the West last year and we weren’t able to slow down the rest of the guys while trying to slow down (De’Aaron) Fox.”
(On Nassir Little’s injury during the game…)
“He’s being evaluated for the concussion so another tough loss. We lost two guys after having a bunch of guys out. We lost two guys for stretches of the game: Nassir (Little) for the whole game and (Jusuf) Nurkic for that critical stretch in the third, but we’ll see where he’s at tomorrow.”
Devin Booker Has 28/7/7 on 71% Shooting, But Suns Lose 114-106 to Kings without Kevin Durant
*Get the BEST Phoenix sports insider information, exclusive content, and access to our seasonal magazines! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our premium content!*
Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
