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Baxter Holmes, ESPN Senior Writer
PHOENIX — A day after the Phoenix Suns defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the series, starting guard Bradley Beal said the team's poor health and lack of continuity led to a premature end to a disappointing season. He lamented that this was the main factor.
“I mean, if you look back, we won 49 games.” [regular-season] “There's a lot of games,” Beal said Monday at the team's practice facility. Did you miss about 30 games? That's a lot of games. I'm not saying we would have won every game if I had played, but if I had been healthy all year and everyone had been healthy all year, we would have been in a completely different position. ”
Beal started the season with lower back tightness and nerve pain in his foot. He then suffered a sprained ankle, a hamstring strain, a broken nose, and a concussion during his first season with the Suns, during which he appeared in 53 of 82 regular season games.
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Beal played exactly half of the regular season together, and the team posted a 26-15 record in those games. This was a 52-win pace good for fourth place in the Western Conference.
“We didn't think of this as a one-year problem, and we're just going to have to figure it out this year,” Beal said. “No, we have time. You don't want to use it for policing, but the reality that we live in, that's the game plan. We have time. Yes, it's a short time, but I We have time.'' And clearly, we all have to do better. We will strengthen our organization and move toward the goal of winning the title, but it will not be easy. ”
Beal added: “We're not going to sit here and say it's easy. Everything happened this summer, there was movement. Everybody had it.” [mindset that], “Oh, this is it.” But there are still kinks to work out. But still, you have to make sure it's a good fit and everyone's on the same page, working towards the same goal and I think everyone has that mindset. It just didn't fall. ”
Beal, Booker and Durant ended up sharing the floor for 862 minutes in the regular season, which was the sixth-most minutes of any Suns three-man lineup. At that moment, the Suns had an offensive rating of 120.5, a defensive rating of 114.0 and a net rating of 6.6, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
However, the Suns' big three underperformed against the Timberwolves. When Booker, Durant and Beal shared the floor in four straight games, Phoenix was minus-51, the worst plus-minus of any trio this postseason.
In the postseason, the Suns were without starting guard Grayson Allen for most of the game, spraining his ankle in Game 1 vs. Minnesota, barely appearing in Game 2, and missing the next two games. Allen similarly lamented the team's poor health throughout the season.
“I think injuries have shortened our time pretty quickly to be the group we want to be,” Allen said Tuesday, adding, “I like the group we have right now. I think we've had enough. We've had enough. . So,” he added. [we’ve] I hope to come back and get better and hope that continuity will help.”
Before Game 4, Beal vowed that the Suns would not be swept, saying, “I've never been swept a day in my life, so if it happens, I'm going to die.'' He then scored nine points on 4-of-13 shooting with six turnovers before fouling out in Sunday's season-ending game against the Timberwolves.
“It's gonna be crap,” Beal said with a smile when he first met reporters. He said: “I'm trying to downplay the situation, but it's [expletive] I feel sorry for the wording. It is certainly so. You have high hopes as a team and obviously as individuals to contribute and be a part of something really big, but that series really sucked. And obviously the last game was terrible for me. ”
The Suns acquired Beal, who will turn 31 in a few months, in a trade with Washington. He has three years and $161 million left on his contract, which also includes a no-trade clause. Beal, a three-time All-Star who twice averaged 30 points per game in the regular season, scored 18.2 points for the Suns this season, but averaged just 16.5 points in the playoffs.
Beal and Allen were the only two to speak to reporters at Monday's retirement press conference, but owner Matt Ishbia and general manager James Jones spoke to reporters Wednesday to announce the team's plans. They announced that they would be discussing the season.
