NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CLIPPERS VS. SUNS

June 22, 2021

Monty Williams

Phoenix Suns

Game 2: Postgame

Suns 104, Clippers 103

Q. Can you just walk us through that inbounds play at the end of the game? I guess just the way that whole kind of last few minutes transpired with all the whistles and replays and reviews, how your team stuck with it there.

MONTY WILLIAMS: Well, you could sit here and talk about the plays being drawn up and all that. Our guys just made plays and stuck with it. When the whistle didn't go our way, when the ball went out on Book, I thought we had really good poise during that time, and then when the free throws were missed, we talked about free throw box-out all morning, because we had situations in Game 1 where we didn't free throw box-out. So Mikal makes a great rebound to get a timeout.

Credit to Jae, we were trying to get a lob for DA and he had the awareness to put it up there where DA could only get it. Book sets a great screen, Jae makes a great pass. It's just one of those things that happens where you're just grateful for. The will of our guys to stay with it. I didn't think we played great tonight, but we made enough plays to win the game.

There was a lot of things that happened. I've got to watch the film to make sure I'm not confused by all the events that happened, but it was unreal execution at the end. For us like the mental stamina to just stay in there and not give up when it looked like it wasn't going to go our way.

Q. Deandre, that seemed to be an encapsulation of what he's turned into, imposing his will, going to get that ball, kind of like a receiver in the end zone. He was good all night. What did you think of just what he's turned into as far as such a dominant force out there?

MONTY WILLIAMS: Well, he's starting to understand having a role doesn't limit you, know what I'm saying? Sometimes you tell a guy this is your role, they tend to think like, I can't do anything else. He just has a big role.

Defensively the rebounding and then the ability to go at the end and get that ball where nobody else could go get it says a lot about his mental maturity. A lot of times you give up on plays like that when it's that time on the clock.

But I thought he showed a lot of stamina tonight physically, too. He was running hard and rebounding and a physical game. I could go on and on about where he was to where he is now. He's just turning into a really dominant player on both ends of the floor.

Q. You mentioned Devin's screen --

MONTY WILLIAMS: Yeah, I heard the crowd going crazy so it was either him or Chris coming through the entryway, and I know his face was swollen and I know he was in pain, but that's the will I've been talking about that he has. I thought the shot he hit over Beverley was just Book. Chris has been talking to him all year about just getting to your spot. Don't try to complicate it. He got to a spot, he made a big shot.

I thought his defense, even though he had fouls tonight, he played a physical defense. It's a playoff game. You've got to figure out how the refs are calling it. But the screen he set at the end -- the other option was if they made a mistake, Book would pop them, get a shot. But his screen was tremendous.

Q. The play at the end, was that from your playbook?

MONTY WILLIAMS: It's a different -- we typically run that more when it's like a typical BOB. It's pretty much a combination of something that Brett Brown used to run and Joe Prunty ran a play when he was here with the Suns. Tyson Chandler got that -- like a slap-in. I wish I was that bright but I'm not.

Jae just made a great pass. That's the deal. He put it where only DA could get it. It was great awareness by him.

Q. Is that something that you practice that play?

MONTY WILLIAMS: No. There's so many situations you can walk through. We've never walked through that one. We've tried to run it earlier in the year playing against Denver, and DA had to go up and catch it and bring it back down and try to score. I think he dunked it.

That was just Jae, Book's screen and DA's ability to get that ball, those guys on that play, and Cam and Mikal just getting out of the way. Like I said, I wish I was that bright, but it doesn't work out that way for me.

Q. What did you make of how Devin played through all the physical plays that the Clippers were using on him, and what did you make of how they're playing overall?

MONTY WILLIAMS: I think the game, it's just playoff basketball. I'm not -- both Ty and I understand the level of physicality that is going to be allowed. I think Book did a decent job of not letting it take him out of his game. He got into foul trouble and was able to play for a few more minutes without picking up his third in the first part of the game.

But that's just playoff basketball, where guys are understanding it, and I can't reiterate enough having Jae and Chris, E'Twaun and Langston around this year to talk to our guys about these types of games. It's helped us a ton.

Q. With Chris out these two games, it sort of feels like he's still impacting this team.

MONTY WILLIAMS: No doubt. Well, he's a winner. He has an impact on winning. He's had an impact on the growth of our guys. He's had a huge impact on me. We had him on FaceTime in the locker room. He and I were just talking about a number of things. But Chris, everywhere he goes, he has a positive winning impact on any group that he's involved with.

Q. In two games without having Chris Paul in the building, Book goes off, has a career night with his triple-double on Sunday and then tonight Cam Payne has a career high 29 points. I know it's been more than them, but what can you say about your guys stepping up without Chris?

MONTY WILLIAMS: I mean, we have depth on our team. It's young depth, but we have depth. Against a team deep like the Clippers, you just need it. There's not a lot of room for drop-off. When one guy goes down, we need the guys who are playing to play at a high level and Cam Payne was tremendous tonight. His ability to get into the paint and score the ball was huge for us. Cam Johnson has been solid off the bench two games in a row. Dario gave us big minutes tonight, hit a three. He was decent in the paint tonight, extremely good when they tried to switch on him and put a smaller guy on him. You could go across the board and see the contributions from our team because of the depth that we have.

Q. I wanted to ask about Paul George's free throws.

MONTY WILLIAMS: I'm just grateful for our fan base. This might be the loudest place I've ever been in my career. It's just that loud. So what affected that, I don't know. But our fans gave it up every single night, and it's just good to have them in the house, especially in those moments. Again, I'm just grateful for them.

Q. On there perhaps being a divine quality to the game.

MONTY WILLIAMS: Well, I don't really know how it works when it comes to faith and winning. I think God is more concerned with how we deal with both winning and losing. But I was praying -- I was just out there, man. My shirt was wet, and I was just thinking to myself, like oh, Lord, please let me -- that kind of thing. But I really don't know how that works.

I'm just grateful that it went our way this time, but as it relates to faith, I think God is more concerned with how you deal with the winning and the losing, to have a level of humility in both, and I've lost enough to master humility when I've lost, so I want to try to display the same when we're in moments like this. I'm just grateful it went our way.

Q. How would you rank that last play in terms of crazy plays you’ve seen?

MONTY WILLIAMS: I don't know. I've seen some crazy plays. I remember Ralph Sampson tapping that thing up back in the day. I've got a part of an alley-oop where we were on defense and we tapped it in for the other team when I was in New Orleans. That was a heartbreaking play.

So it's hard to say. If you're around the game long enough, you're going to see a lot. For me, it was an amazing play for us, and I can't tell you, the pass that Jae made and DA's ability to go get that ball and Devin's screen won't work if you don't have those guys executing those kinds of plays.

Q. You kind of just answered this, but when you look at the tape, what's going through your head?

MONTY WILLIAMS: I'm just talking to -- everybody has video now, so you're just looking at your bench. We knew the rule, that it's not a shot, so you can hit it whenever you throw it up. So we knew that part. It was just a matter of was it going to go our way and how much time was left on the clock. I was just grateful that it was basket good and then I'm hoping that it's less than 0.4 on the clock, but it happened so fast, it ended up being 0.7.

Q. Thinking about the last play, Devin Booker set a screen on Zubac. I was hoping you could help me understand how tough that is under normal circumstances and how much tougher that might be with a busted nose.

MONTY WILLIAMS: Like I told everybody, he was probably playing with a great deal of pain from the time he got [hit]. I'm almost positive. I thought he broke his nose when I saw it, and then I was worried about the blood continuing to flow. But Devin, I said it last game, he has a tremendous will. His conditioning is unmatched, and the ability to go set that kind of screen knowing that everybody is going to be draped all over you, says a lot about his willingness to make a play for this team.

It was just a cool moment for us, and we're just thankful that it went our way.

Q. As the series shifts over to Los Angeles, the arena won't be packed like it was in Arizona. What's the mindset?

MONTY WILLIAMS: Well, I think it's a great question because we do have a young team and a lot of young guys who are playing in situations they've never been in before, but they'll only get the experience by going through it. Playing in Denver helped because they had a ton of fans that were going nuts for their team, but I just think that the last part of our schedule, some of those games we played in Milwaukee and New York and on the road, I think that will help our guys.

But I also feel like the veterans or our team will help the young guys navigate through all of that, and once you start playing, you know how it is, you just kind of lose focus on all that and just focus on the game. I hope that's our approach as we shift the series over to LA.