Suns coach Monty Williams did not go so far as lobbing outright criticism at the officiating crew that labored Sport 3 of the NBA Finals, however he did have some, uh, observations.

Following the Bucks’ 120-100 win on Sunday evening, Williams was requested concerning the difficulties in placing collectively a powerful frontcourt rotation with Deandre Ayton caught on the bench. The 22-year-old middle obtained off to a sizzling begin, scoring 12 of his 18 factors within the first quarter, however he struggled with foul bother within the second half.

MORE: Finest highlights from Sport 3 of NBA Finals

Ayton was subbed out after selecting up his fourth foul with 10:25 remaining within the third quarter and pulled once more after being referred to as for his fifth foul with 8:54 left within the closing body. He performed simply 24 complete minutes in Sport 3.

“I am not going to get into complaining publicly about fouls. Simply not going to do this,” Williams mentioned throughout his postgame media availability. “However you possibly can look — we had 16 free throws tonight. One individual had 17. So [Ayton] is — we obtained to be taught from that. We obtained to beat guys to the spot. He’ll develop from this, I promise you he’ll.”

Williams was referring to Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo firing up 17 free throw makes an attempt in comparison with 16 for the whole Suns roster. (Milwaukee shot 26 as a group.) Nevertheless, it needs to be famous that Antetokounmpo has been among the many league leaders in free throw makes an attempt over the previous couple of seasons, and Phoenix averaged 18.7 free throw makes an attempt per recreation through the 2020-21 common season, the second-lowest mark within the NBA.

When requested how he can information Ayton by means of foul points, Williams selected his phrases rigorously, however he clearly supposed to ship a message about what he perceived to be inconsistent calls.

“Yeah, that is a troublesome one. I do not even need to go there,” Williams mentioned. “It is fairly self-explanatory. We obtained to determine or outline what’s a authorized guarding place as a result of there are occasions the place he can transfer his arms out of the way in which, however it’s exhausting to inform a man what to do when anyone is working into you, you already know what I imply? I do not know what a authorized guarding place is at occasions.

“However they have been aggressive and we’ve to provide them credit score. I am not going to take a seat right here and complain a couple of group that’s aggressive. However we’ve to grasp how the refs are calling the sport after which alter to that. There is a ton of physicality within the recreation, for positive, however so far as instructing him, we obtained to take a look at the movie and see the place he can have higher physique place and choose up some costs after they current themselves.”

Williams might obtain a name from the league workplace concerning his feedback, but when slightly gamesmanship offers the Suns a greater whistle in Sport 4, he will not care all that a lot concerning the penalties.