The Phoenix Suns return to their home court for the fifth game of the NBA Finals Saturday at 6 p.m..
The Suns lost their second consecutive road game to the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-103, in Game 4 Fiserv Forum on Wednesday.
The series is tied 2-2.
Check our live coverage updates here throughout Game 5.
MORE: Suns assistant coach Willie Green hired as New Orleans Pelicans head coach
Monty’s got jokes, but is all business
Many people don’t know the hectic lifestyle of an NBA head coach.
The early mornings to late nights studying film. Training their players. Working with their coaching staff to their scouting reports of their opponents and progress of their players. Meetings with their team’s management. Answering unique and mundane questions during media scrums. Coaching games in long stretches in their team’s game schedule at their home arena and on the road without getting back home. And the list goes on and on and on.
And these might have their own family life deal with, which many like to keep private from the outside world.
In the media press conference before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Monty Williams was asked by a reporter what his home life is like besides coaching?
They didn’t get the full Monty as expected.
“Who do you write for? Boring.com?” Williams said as several other reporters in the press room laughed. “You wouldn’t want to know what I do at certain times …
“I’m at the house. My kids make fun of me. I read and I get back to work. I go outside with my dogs.”
Monty is focused on the Suns winning, which is all that counts this time of year.
Do the Suns have one or two more chances to win the NBA Finals?
There has been an oft-used sports adage about the NBA Playoffs that “the series doesn’t begin until the road team wins.”
That hasn’t manifested yet as both the Suns and Bucks have won their respective home games. But the Bucks have the momentum entering Game 5 after winning the last two in Milwaukee.
If the Bucks win Saturday at the newly-named Footprint Center, they are one win away from their first NBA title in 50 years. That would also put the Suns more on their heels, losing three straight games in this year’s playoffs.
But if Chris Paul has a better game than his five-turnover performance in Game 4, Devin Booker goes off again for an unstoppable performance, and Deandre Ayton has a dominant performance, with immense help from the Suns bench, the Suns could win Game 5 and enter Game 6 on Tuesday one win away from their first franchise NBA title.
As Suns head coach Monty Williams said to the media before Game 5, repeating his former boss in Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers’ text message to him earlier Saturday, “Pressure is a privilege.”
This go-ahead game is the most important game of the series and the pressure is on for both teams moving forward.
Pregame reading
Catch up on these stories from The Arizona Republic to prepare for Game 5 of the Suns vs. Bucks series:
More Bucks vs. Suns NBA Finals coverage:
MORE: Suns PA announcer Vince Marotta says calling NBA Finals is “surreal”
Have tips for us? Reach the reporter at dana.scott@azcentral.com or at 480-486-4721. Follow his Twitter @iam_DanaScott.
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