翻译：太阳队的伤病和球队不稳定，已经导致球队五连败了

The game was barely two minutes old, but a frustrated Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams had already seen enough, jumping up from his seat to call a timeout and congregate with his assistants in the middle of the floor.

As an isolated incident, the position Phoenix was in with 9 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the first quarter wasn’t all doom and gloom. The Suns had yet to score in the game and only trailed the Rockets by seven. But the early body language of the players seated on the visitors’ bench, juxtaposed with the hunger and confidence on Houston’s bench served as a suitable microcosm of everything that is wrong with the Suns at the moment.

比赛刚开始两分钟，但沮丧的菲尼克斯太阳队主教练蒙蒂威廉姆斯已经看够了，他从座位上跳起来叫暂停，并和他的助手们聚集在球场中央。

作为一个孤立事件，菲尼克斯在第一节还剩 9 分 26 秒时所处的环境还不算太糟糕。太阳队开场还尚未得分，仅落后火箭队7 分。但是坐在替补席的球员并没有什么激情，与休斯顿替补席上的活跃成了对比，这是目前太阳队所有问题的缩影。

On Tuesday night, the Suns lost 111-97 to the Rockets, their fifth straight loss and their sixth in the last seven fixtures. Credit must be given to a young Houston team, displaying a rare form of poise and control on both sides of the ball recently, having beaten both Phoenix and Milwaukee in back-to-back games. Of all the talk of how electric the Rockets’ offense can be — spearheaded by Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr.’s athleticism — it’s been their defense that has answered the call as of late, holding the 2021 NBA Finals participants to under 100 points.

周二晚上，太阳队以 111-97 输给了火箭队，他们已经五连败 ，也是最近七场比赛中的第六场失利。必须要表扬这支年轻的休斯顿队，他们最近在攻防两侧表现出了罕见的平衡和控制，在背靠背的比赛中击败了菲尼克斯和密尔沃基。在所有关于火箭队的进攻有多强大的讨论中——由贾伦格林和小凯文波特的运动能力带头——最近出现的是他们的防守，将 2021 年 NBA 总决赛的两支球队得分控制在 100 分以下.

But in reality, this is a snowball effect. This is a veteran team that is playing below their standards. After the game, players tried to work through some of the on-court happenings that caught them by surprise, somewhat confused by how an 8-18 team had thoroughly worked them. Both before and after the game, Williams made several comments about the free-throw disparity between the two teams (Houston has taken 39 more attempts at the line over their last two meetings), but a Suns team with serious title aspirations shouldn’t be getting outplayed on both ends of the floor by a team destined for the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, free throws or not.

但实际上，这是滚雪球效应。他们是一支老牌球队，他们的表现低于他们的标准。比赛结束后，球员们试图解决一些让他们感到意外的场上事件，他们对被一支8-18 的球队彻底解决而感到有些困惑。在赛前和赛后，蒙蒂威廉姆斯都对两支球队之间的罚球差距发表了一些评论（休斯顿在最近两次比赛中罚球次数增加了 39 次），但一支渴望夺冠的太阳队不应该在攻防两端都被注定要参加文班亚马抽奖的球队击败，即使是罚球。

“We just losing,” Suns guard Chris Paul told The Athletic. “We’re losing. It is what it is. Obviously, it ain’t no excuses — we give them a lot of credit for how they played and move on.”

A micro observation would tell you the Suns are in the middle of a rut but from a macro perspective, their season has been characterized by inconsistency. Phoenix won six of the first seven games of the season, followed by losing four of the next six. This was followed by a bright stretch winning seven of their next eight games, which quickly turned into six losses in their last seven games. But Williams took the glass-half-full approach when talking about his group’s up-and-down form, comparing it to the rest of the NBA and the overall wackiness this season.

“我们只是输了，”太阳队后卫克里斯保罗告诉The Athletic。“我们输了。就是这样。显然，这不是借口——我们对他们的表现和进步给予了很大的赞扬。”

微观来看太阳队正处于一成不变的状态，但从宏观角度来看，他们的赛季特点是不稳定。菲尼克斯队在本赛季的前七场比赛中赢了六场，随后在接下来的六场比赛中输掉了四场。紧接着他们在接下来的八场比赛中赢了七场，在过去的七场比赛中又变成了六场失利。但蒙蒂威廉姆斯在谈到他的球队的状态时采取了淡化的方式，将其与NBA的其他球队以及本赛季的整体古怪进行了比较。

“It’s just part of the NBA season,” Williams said. “You look across the league, every team is going through it. Just look around the league, you’ll see it on every team.”

From a glance, it might seem as if Williams is downplaying Phoenix’s lack of consistency, but he’s right to some degree. The Suns have been battered by injuries. Starting forward Cam Johnson was lost in early November and remains out. Paul missed 14 straight games with a heel problem. Devin Booker has missed the last two games with a hamstring issue. Even against the Rockets, both Deandre Ayton and Cameron Payne exited with ankle and foot injuries, respectively.

“这只是 NBA 赛季的一部分，”蒙蒂威廉姆斯说。“你看看整个联盟，每支球队都在经历它。环顾整个联盟，你会在每支球队身上看到它。”

乍一看，蒙蒂似乎在淡化菲尼克斯缺乏稳定性，但在某种程度上他是对的。太阳队饱受伤病困扰。首发前锋约翰逊在 11 月初就一直缺席。保罗因脚后跟问题连续缺席了 14 场比赛。德文布克因腿筋问题缺席了最近两场比赛。即使是在对阵火箭队的比赛中，德安德烈·艾顿和卡梅隆·佩恩也分别因脚踝和脚部受伤而退赛。

The Suns projected starting five — Paul, Booker, Johnson, Mikal Bridges and Ayton — is a whopping plus-32 in net rating but has played just 67 minutes together. To date, the Suns’ most-used lineup this season has both Payne and Torrey Craig in, two fine players but not what a team in contending mode should expect. The Suns have long leaned on their depth but missing that many players in key stretches can be tough sledding.

“It can be,” Williams said on if injuries have affected their rhythm. “When you’re plugging in guys that haven’t played in those moments. But for the most part, when you lose guys like that, it can affect your rhythm. It’d be silly for me to sit up here and act like that doesn’t have an effect on your team.”

太阳队预计首发的五人——保罗、布克、约翰逊、米卡尔布里奇斯和艾顿——的净效率高达 32 分，但他们只一起打了 67 分钟。迄今为止，太阳队本赛季最常用的阵容还有佩恩和克雷格，但只有两名优秀的球员不是一支处于竞争模式的球队应该存在的。太阳队长期以来一直依赖于他们的阵容深度，但在关键阶段缺席许多球员可能会很艰难。

蒙蒂威廉姆斯在谈到伤病是否影响了他们的节奏时说道。“在大多数情况下，当你失去这些球员时，它会影响你的节奏。如果我坐在这里并表现得他们对你的团队没有影响，那将是愚蠢的。”

But paramount to anything, injuries or not, is their defense which has taken a turn for the worse. Over the past two seasons, the Suns have finished with the third- and sixth-best defensive units, per Cleaning the Glass. Since Dec. 1, however, Phoenix is 29th in point differential and a shocking 30th in defensive efficiency, surrendering a whopping 121.2 points per 100 possessions. That’s not going to cut it and the players know it.

“We just haven’t been playing our way,” Bridges said. “We just haven’t been playing our best ball defensively. Trying to fix it, learn and get better for the next game.”

但最重要的是，无论是否受伤，他们的防守已经变得更糟。根据 Cleaning the Glass 的数据，在过去的两个赛季，太阳队的防守分别排名第三和第六。然而，自 12 月 1 日以来，菲尼克斯的场均分差排在第 29 位，防守效率排在第 30 位，每百回合丢掉 121.2 分。已经没有下降空间了，球员们知道这一点。

“我们只是没有按自己的方式比赛，”布里奇斯说。“我们只是没有在防守端打出最好的比赛。努力修复它，学习并为下一场比赛变得更好。”

So what gives? One common answer was communication, or a lack thereof. The players didn’t want to use injuries as an excuse because at the end of the day, executing defensively boils down to accountability which is amplified by communication. Lapses like this have become common as of late. This is a Rockets team that is 26th in offensive efficiency. There’s no reason they should be able to get easy baskets like this in the half court. Ayton has played against Eric Gordon long enough to know playing that deep in drop coverage is only begging him to shoot. Paul certainly knows it. Watch his body language as the shot goes up, pointing to his head.

那么给出了什么？一个常见的答案是沟通，或者缺乏沟通。球员们不想以伤病为借口，因为归根结底，防守的执行是问责制，而问责制又会被沟通放大。像这样的失误最近变得很普遍。这是一支进攻效率排名第26的火箭队。没有理由让他们应该能够在半场轻松得分。像埃里克戈登这球，他这种空位投篮只能乞求他投篮不进。保罗当然知道。当镜头上升时，注意他的肢体语言，指向他的头。

There’s absolutely nothing a defense can do if they’re giving All-NBA players clean looks like this. Some of it, as Ayton alluded to after the game, is adjusting to matching up with smaller centers, but the lack of communication is glaring. Bridges knows Jayson Tatum’s tendencies and tries to tell Ayton he’s going to drive to his right, meaning Ayton should be higher up with the help, but Ayton opts to hang around the nail. All Tatum needs is a sliver and he gets much more than that in their game versus Boston in the clip below.

如果他们让所有 NBA 球员动作像这样干净，那么防守绝对无能为力。正如艾顿在赛后提到的那样，正在适应与一些较小的中锋对位，但缺乏沟通是显而易见的。布里奇斯知道杰森·塔图姆的倾向，并试图告诉艾顿他要向他的右边突破，这意味着艾顿应该去延误，但艾顿选择站在罚球线看着。塔图姆得到空间直接就进行了投篮

“Mainly just communicating,” Ayton told The Athletic. “Teams are using smaller guys at different positions, and they’re putting the ball on the ground, making our defense move and getting in the paint. When I go, there’s another big dude rebounding the ball and just crashing the glass and finishing in the paint. And we’re doing a lot of fouling. Playing a lot of defense and it’s putting pressure on our offense. It’s kind of hard to get into a rhythm on offense because we play so much defense and we’re fouling. All that stuff is deflating, man, and mental as hell.

“主要是交流，”艾顿告诉The Athletic。“球队在不同位置使用小个子球员，他们进行联防，用我们的防守移动不让对手进入禁区。当我离开时，有另一个大个子会抢篮板球，然后快攻完成比赛。我们现在有很多犯规。这给我们的进攻带来了压力。很难在进攻中找到节奏，因为我们防守太多而且犯规了。所有这些东西都让人泄气。

“We could say a lot. But really man, we just gotta approach these games knowing that teams are coming to knock our head off our body, bro. Defensive-wise, I just think we need to communicate more and play hard. We just gotta be more connected. The teams we see on film aren’t the teams we play — they’re playing harder and with a chip on their shoulder against us.”

“我们可以说很多。但说真的，伙计，我们只需要了解这些比赛就会知道球队会把我们的头从我们身上撞下来，兄弟。防守方面，我只是觉得我们需要多沟通，努力打球。我们只是需要更多的联系。我们在录像中看到的球队不是我们比赛的球队——他们打得更努力，对我们不怀好意。”

Despite the regression, Phoenix has the veteran makeup and leadership to get over rough patches like this. Paul, at the helm, is a big reason why. Both he and Williams share a sense of calmness that trickles down to the rest of the team. Booker’s absence over the last two games can’t be understated, either, as the offensive engine of this team — an internal aspect that often kickstarts their defensive aggression. Bridges, who finished second in NBA Defensive Player of the Year voting last season, knows the caliber of players around him in the locker room and doesn’t need reminding of what they can do. Paul and Bridges spoke at length after Tuesday night’s loss and you would have never known that the former shot 5 of 17 from the field and the latter went 4 of 24.

尽管出现了退步，但菲尼克斯拥有老将的素质和领导才能来克服这样的困难时期。掌舵的保罗是一个重要原因。他和蒙蒂都有一种平静的感觉，这种感觉会逐渐渗透到团队的其他成员身上。布克在过去两场比赛中的缺席也不能被低估，作为这支球队的进攻引擎 - 一个经常带动他们防守反击的内部原因。上赛季在 NBA 年度最佳防守球员投票中排名第二的布里奇斯知道他队友的能力，不需要提醒他们做什么。保罗和布里奇斯在周二晚上的失利后进行了长篇大论，但你不用知道前者 17 投 5 中，而后者 24 投 4 中。

“It’s adversity,” Bridges said. “We’re losing, not playing well. Just keep going. The real you shows when times get tough. It’s either you fold or we go up, and I know the guys in this locker room and coaches know that folding is never an option. We just gotta get ready.”

“Stay the course,” Paul said. “Stay the course. It’s a long season. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. We won 18 games in a row last year and lost in the second round, you know what I mean? We got a long way to go.”

“这是逆境，”布里奇斯说。“我们输了，打得不好。这是的艰难时刻，展现真实的你。要么你放弃，要么我们改变，我知道这个更衣室里的人和教练都知道放弃绝不是一种选择。我们只需要做好准备。”

“坚持到底，”保罗说。“坚持到底。这是一个漫长的赛季。不要太高，也不要太低。去年我们连赢了 18 场比赛，但在第二轮输了，你明白我的意思吗？我们还有很长的路要走。”