A visibly upset head coach Monty Williams entered the postgame room and expressed his frustrations yet again about free throw disparity against his team, as the Phoenix Suns fell against the Los Angeles Lakers, 122-111 on Wednesday night.
“Forty-six free throws. And I’ll say it again, 46 to 20. That’s it. That’s all I got to say,” Williams said, via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
“I’m tired of talking about free throws. Our guys have to do their job, we understand that, but that’s a huge disparity.”
For context, Los Angeles massively overlapped Phoenix in terms of foul shots. L.A. went at the line 46 times (36 successful makes) over the Suns’ 20 (15 successful makes).
The Suns fouled the Lakers 31 times throughout the match. This season, they are placed 26th in terms of personal fouls ranking with 21.4 averages a game.
Williams was also in disbelief with how the Lakers elevated their 26 shot attempts from halftime by completely turning it to 46 until the final buzzer. The tricky Austin Reaves had the most trips with 12-of-13 shootings, which was followed by 7-of-10 from Anthony Davis.
“I can sit here and rant and rave about what I feel like is not a fair whistle,” Williams said. “It’s just not. Forty-six free throws. We’re doing the same thing. We’re attacking the rim. I’m getting explanations about we’re taking too many jump shots, midrange jump shots. We’re playing a physical game. They had 27 free throws in the first half. They end up with 46. When do you see a game with 46 free throws for one team? That’s just not right.”
Williams already made a rant last Mar. 14 when the Milwaukee Bucks appeared 37 times to the line over the Suns’ 16. In those 37 attempts, Giannis Antetokounmpo occupied the biggest chunk with his 24 shots.
With the loss, the fourth-placed Suns dropped to 38-34. A loss next game against the Sacramento Kings on Friday could drop them as low as the sixth seed.
“I don’t care how you slice it, it’s happening too much,” Williams said. “Other teams are reaching, other teams are hitting and we’re not getting the same call and I’m tired of it. It’s old.”
