Since starting the season 7-5 very little has gone right for the Phoenix Suns who enter Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors 14-35, tied for second-worst in the Western Conference. After their 14-straight road loss Sunday night in Dallas, the team fired Jeff Hornacek.
General manager Ryan McDonough and the organization are hoping the elevating of assistant Earl Watson to interim head coach will infuse little into a team desperately searching for any sort of positive heading into the final 33 games of the year.
“We need to play harder, we need to play the right way,” McDonough told the packed Suns’ media room Tuesday morning. “Coach Watson and I met with the team [Tuesday] morning and we were pretty direct with them about what we need going forward.”
The two stressed sharing the ball, competing for one another and playing with a positive attitude, something which has become difficult for players like Markieff Morris who has been in the team’s doghouse most of the season.
“We can’t get caught up in who think we should be,” Watson said seated next to McDonough. “We have to focus on who we are and become better at who we are…the ball will find the right person.”
The short-handed club, already playing without point guards Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, reportedly have lost 2014 first-round pick T.J. Warren for the season with a broken foot.
Phoenix is hoping it’s always darkest before the basketball dawn.
