National Basketball Association

Facing elimination, Suns try to stay positive heading into Game 6 of NBA Finals

Updated Jul. 29, 2021 9:34 p.m. ET

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By Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer

There's a saying Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams has used throughout the season: "Everything we want is on the other side of hard."

As Chris Paul sat on the podium before his team practiced Monday, he repeated those words, knowing they were about to be put to the ultimate test.

"It doesn't get any harder than this," Paul added.

For the first time this postseason, the Suns will play an elimination game, a position they didn't think they'd be in after they jumped to a 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals.

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But then three straight games slipped through their grasp, sending their championship hopes circling the drain. To make things even tougher to swallow, their previous two losses came in the final seconds and can be summed up by two signature plays, "The Block" and "The Steal," which will undoubtedly haunt them forever — unless they're able to resuscitate their season in Game 6 on Tuesday.

Williams tried to prepare the Suns for this moment throughout their Cinderella season, one in which they transformed from a team that wasn't projected to make the playoffs into title contenders.

Together, they blocked out the noise. They proved wrong everyone who thought that Paul was over the hill and that the team's young core was too inexperienced to thrive on the biggest of stages.

And they insist they're still on the same page now, despite their bitter disappointments over the past week.

"I saw yesterday when we got on the plane, the guys had the same look in their eyes," Williams said. "Those kinds of losses are hard, but if you're going to do anything big, you have to overcome those kinds of hards."

If things had gone just a bit differently the past two games, the Suns might be on the brink of a title.

Say, if Giannis Antetokounmpo hadn't soared through the air and swatted Deandre Ayton's shot that would've tied Game 4 with 1:14 left. Or if, with 16.7 seconds remaining and the Bucks up 120-119 in Game 5, Jrue Holiday hadn't stripped Devin Booker and thrown an incredible alley-oop pass to Antetokounmpo, who completed a two-handed jam.

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But in both of those losses, the Suns showed a lot of heart. They never quit. Even when they were down 14 points in the fourth quarter of Game 5, they scrapped and scraped, storming back into the contest. 

"For us to be able to cut it to one point, that was the thing that stuck out to me and gives our staff and team a lot of confidence as we go into this Game 6," Williams said.

He's trying to remind everyone around him to take stock of their situation.

The Suns are in the NBA Finals, a position no one thought they'd be in when the season began. Even though the incredibly fickle and strong pull of momentum has swung away from them, the pendulum could easily swing back in the other direction.

The chasm between them and their goal might seem incredibly wide, but it's really only two games away.

It's all about perspective, something Paul said everyone is trying to keep in mind at this pivotal juncture.

"Coach and everybody has been saying: ‘If you went to the beginning of the season and said we had a chance to be where we are right now, would you take it?’" Paul said. "Absolutely. Absolutely. And we get a chance to determine the outcome. It's not like the game is going to be simulated or somebody else got to play. We get a chance. We control our own destiny."

The odds are definitely stacked against the Suns: Consider that the winners of Game 5s of NBA Finals tied 2-2 have won the championship 72% of the time.

But the Suns have trampled over the odds all season. They aren't about to be intimidated by them now.

Not with what's at stake. 

"Throughout this whole playoff run, this is our first elimination game," Paul said. "So it's for real. It's no looking back now. We got to come out, be ready to play, and it's either win or go home."

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She has previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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National Basketball Association

Phoenix Suns

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Chris Paul

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Melissa Rohlin