Royce O’Neale: Suns took Spurs “a little too lightly”

Royce O’Neale: Suns took Spurs “a little too lightly”

All right welcome back to the Burns & gambo show Flagship home of the Phoenix Suns here on Arizona Sports the local sports leader Suns disappointing night last night in San Antonio it’s on to the next they’re in Denver to open up this final 10 game stretch of the Season

Before the playoffs start and we certainly do appreciate our next guest joining us right now here for a few minutes Royce O’Neal from the Phoenix Suns joining us here on the burns and gambo show Royce welcome back to the show we appreciate the time truly thanks

For coming on man how you doing I’m good man appreciate yall having me do yeah we’ve got you on the preview the Arizona Balor game for Thursday oh but B oh no man I know right there game tough game they lost man Clemson Bor loses to Clemson come on

Roy tough game I know I was watching it I was watching it you think that you think that did you think that team was good enough to beat Arizona and maybe North Carolina and get to the final four oh yeah for sure I mean uh you know

I had a couple guys you know around on the team and coaches St you know talking about Arizona so I was like yeah when they play d i me when they play Bay you know they gonna lose so but you know they they fell one game short they did

They did I can’t talk too much no no no we thought we’d rip you a little bit on that all right let’s I don’t I don’t have a lot of words for this what what the hell happened last night hey we just had too many turnovers

You know too many mistakes uh you know we couldn’t you know offense there we scored no points but you know just down you know the wire getting enough stops for us to win you know happens but you know we got to learn from that game and

You know hopefully you know a little of fire in us and you know for these last 10 games g make a push there was a lot of talk after the game about taking that team too lightly especially when wbi wasn’t out there in retrospect looking

Back on it do you feel like you guys took them too lightly going into that game uh maybe a little bit uh I mean you know usually when a team doesn’t have the star uh or you know their main player you know the guys you know have

More freedom and stuff uh I mean you know we kind of looked at it you know as he wasn’t playing and then did take a little too lightly but you know in this in this league you can’t you can’t do that any night any against any team you

Know so yeah the question is like like you know we where trying to figure how does that happen you guys you lost to San Antonio twice you’ve lost to Memphis and Portland and you lost to Indiana we didn’t when we didn’t have halberton it

Is it’s odd for us to figure out how you guys would take them lightly considering you’ve had a bunch of games this year that kind of mirrored that type of game yeah uh I mean I you know here I wasn’t here earlier you know in the season when you know those games happen

So I really I can’t really speak on those but yeah last night you know just taking the team too lightly I mean they came out you know they they played hard competed every possession you know made some big shots and you know so has all

To do you’ve uh you’ve been a player uh in this league many many years Royce what was today’s film session with Coach kind of going over what happened last night was it was it honest and raw and kind of real and and you know got to the

Point was it one of those I’m sure you’ve had a few of those was it one of those film sessions that it kind of needed to be honest and raw and real to kind of make everybody understood what happened last night and why it needs to get

Fixed oh yeah for sure uh definitely was an honest you know um conversation and film session that we had um you know that’s what I said hopefully you know that game last night we learned from it uh you know took the positives and the negatives and you know hopefully lights

Are firing us and you know be ready to finish out the seasure strong and make this playoff push the good thing is that there are no more like weaker opponents on your schedule you don’t there is no ability to play Down to the opponents everybody you are playing is a good team

A playoff team a tough battle do you think that that could help you guys you know to be motivated because every team you’re playing is a quality team oh yeah for sure I mean uh you know especially the last couple games we you know we know you know teams are fighting

You know seeing for seeding and stuff and we fighting also for a seeding as well you know playoff push so we know how important these games are we know every night it’s going to be a fight you know so we just got to bring our best game and lock in offensively and

Defensively from All 48 minutes look a lot of us that still believe in this team believe that this team is is can can can can win will point to the the game against Denver a few weeks ago you went on the road they were healthy you

Guys beat them in their place in their building it was a very good game do you guys look at that game and say that’s the one that proves that we could beat anybody in this league uh yeah for sure I mean uh every night we still going into the tality we

Can beat anybody I mean looking at our roster and way we play uh as long as we play the right way and you know lock in on both sides of the ball you know we gonna be able to beat anybody and you know so I mean I take our chances

Against any team in the league D Royce O’Neal is our guest here on the burns and gambo show Sun’s getting ready to take on the Nuggets tomorrow you’ll hear that game here on Arizona Sports the local sports leader we talk all the time on this show on all of the shows

Here at the station Roy about the importance of staying out of the play in tournament about not leaving it to chance like that how important is it in your opinion for you guys to be able to say that that you stayed out of the playin tournament that you didn’t finish

Seventh or eighth so you don’t have to deal with kind of the hassle that comes with being in the playin tournament uh yeah for sure I mean nobody wants to be in the playin uh so we definitely want to avoid that and then um you know hopefully get you know

Top top six that way we can avoid it and you know don’t have to worry about it but I mean you know we just gonna Focus one game on a time you know can’t never know what’s gonna happen in this league so but our chances and you know our you

Know thought process is to get in that top sick or avoid the play in by any chance R I want to I want to ask you about the play where Sohan hit the three with 29 seconds left uh book was on vassel you were you were kind of you

Were kind of in the middle keeping your eye on both players when he drove you kind of took a step or two to try to help book out they were able to kick it out to Sohan he hits the three give me give me your thought process on what you

Were seeing and your defensive alignment on that final play uh yeah I mean I was you know I mean he hadn’t made a three all you know all game and had a in a couple games so you know I was just providing help you know on the Gap and and you know they

Just made a good play and he finally knocked down a three and that just happened to be the most the one that was most crucial in the you know game winning one so uh I mean I could have I should have moved out but you know I

Mean I was just playing the game and you know playing presentative so yeah if he would have missed it if he would have missed it would have won nobody would have said nothing right right right he just happened to make it so it happens yeah Roy we appreciate the time as

Always thanks for joining us especially guys on the road like that with how busy you are uh best of luck against Denver tomorrow we appreciate the conversation okay thanks Royce appreciate it h yeah Roy O’Neal joining us live from the team bus it sounded like as they are in

Denver getting ready to take on the Nuggets tomorrow there you go thanks for watching Burns and gambo click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never never miss a video from Arizona Sports

Phoenix Suns forward Royce O’Neale joined Burns & Gambo to talk about the team’s disappointing loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, and to look ahead at the team’s remaining schedule, as they continue to make a push toward the NBA playoffs.

Video: Jeremy Schnell and Ed Cole/Arizona Sports

Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

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