Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry rips team to media after loss

After Wednesday’s loss to the Warriors at home, it is fair to say the Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry was angry. Very angry.

In his postgame press conference, Gentry blasted his team for its lack of effort at the outset, when the Suns fell behind Golden State, 36-17, in the first quarter. Phoenix fought back to tie the game at 104 in the fourth quarter, but ultimately lost, 106-104, on a difficult jumper by Warriors guard Monta Ellis.

Gentry was not in a mood to pat his players on the back for getting back in the game at the end.

“The game was lost in the first 10 minutes of the game,” Gentry said. “When we got an opportunity to do something good and we come out like that, it’s just ridiculous. It’s unfair to the people, the fans in the stands. The way we approached the game sucked. And yeah, I said sucked. So what we do is exactly what I said we would do after the first timeout. We would dig ourselves a hole, and then we would have to play so hard to get back, it would be a perfect storm. And you know what? We end up defending the heck out of the guy at the end and he makes the shot and that’s not the difference in the game. The difference in the game was what happened in the first 10 minutes.

Gentry was just getting started, though, dropping some foul language before apologizing. “Yeah, I’m disgusted,” he said. “I’m disgusted with the way we played. I’m disgusted with the fact that we had the chance to end the break with something really upbeat and positive and, instead, we just walked through the first (expletive) 10 minutes of the game. Excuse me. I’m sorry. We walked through the first 10 minutes of the game, and that cost us the game.”

Gentry’s frustration no doubt stems from his team’s inconsistency. The Suns are barely hanging in the Western Conference playoff race, now four games out of the No. 8 seed. The team immediately above them is Golden State, and a win would have given the Suns a three-game winning streak going into the All-Star break.

“Unless we get ourselves together and understand we can’t afford to lose games like this at home, and we got to play right from the start, these kinds of things are going to happen for the rest of the season,” Gentry said.