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Suns never set on Phoenix road warriors in NBA title hunt

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Agence France-Presse 

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/07/11/cp3.jpg"/><figcaption>Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul (3) and forward Jae Crowder (99) celebrate the 118-108 victory against the Milwaukee Bucks in game two of the 2021 NBA Finals at Phoenix Suns Arena. <em>Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports/Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MILWAUKEE -- Having led the NBA in road triumphs this season, the Phoenix Suns like their chances of taking a crucial victory at Milwaukee despite a notoriously rowdy set of Bucks supporters.</p><p>The Suns carry a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals into Sunday&#x27;s game three as the scene shifts from the Arizona desert to the Great Lakes shore, where in-arena fans will be joined by thousands of Bucks backers watching in the Deer District big-screen viewing area outside.</p><p>&quot;Playing in the NBA Finals in front of the fans that have supported us all year long, and it&#x27;s been (almost) 50 years since we played one here in Milwaukee, for sure it&#x27;s going to be exciting,&quot; Milwaukee&#x27;s Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo said.</p><p>But the Suns, two wins from the first title in team history, have been road warriors all season. They had the NBA&#x27;s best record away from home at 24-12 in the regular season, when they went 51-21 and finished only one game back of NBA overall leader Utah.</p><p>Phoenix has followed with a 6-2 road record in the playoffs and the Suns know no team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win an NBA playoff series.</p><p>&quot;I love our home crowd, but I also love playing on the road. It has always been like that my whole career,&quot; Suns guard Chris Paul said.</p><p>&quot;When you go on the road, it&#x27;s just you and your guys, the people that travel with you, so you really got to stick together.</p><p>&quot;And it&#x27;s nice when you can silence a crowd. It&#x27;s fun. It&#x27;s entertaining. I think our team, we just had a right mindset for it.&quot;</p><p>Being on the road during the Covid-19 pandemic helped build camaraderie among the Suns, especially after Paul joined the club last November.</p><p>&quot;We enjoy playing on the road and I think that brings our team together even more,&quot; Suns guard Devin Booker said.</p><p>&quot;We spent a lot of our free time this year, especially with the Covid protocols, spending time together. Not with our families on the road, just somebody hosting. We&#x27;re playing cards. We have 10, 12 guys in the room at a time.&quot;</p><p>Being composed and prepared for a road game in the NBA Finals comes from a confidence built night after night during the campaign.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re prepared for this moment,&quot; Suns forward Jae Crowder said. &quot;All year we&#x27;ve been talking about trying to come together on the road and get our road presence in a sense.</p><p>&quot;You just can&#x27;t turn it on right now in this moment. You have to prepare yourself for this and we&#x27;ve done a great job of talking and preparing ourselves for moments like we&#x27;re going to face the next few days.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s the Finals. You expect a tough crowd, especially when you&#x27;re on the road, it&#x27;s playing for it all, so we&#x27;re prepared for it. We know we have to be together, do everything collectively and we&#x27;re aware of it, and I&#x27;m looking forward to the task.&quot;</p><div><strong>- &#x27;Try not to overthink&#x27; -</strong></div><p>Suns coach Monty Williams has tried to build a rhythm for road games that provides a routine players can fall back upon without the usual support networks at home.</p><p>&quot;The thing that has been consistent is the culture pieces we try to implement every day, and keep our day the same on the road and at home,&quot; Williams said.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re going to have a film session. We&#x27;re going to have a mental workout. We&#x27;re going to walk through things that we need to. We&#x27;re going to get our work in. And we have enough veteran leadership on our team to help our guys with the differences between playoff home and playoff road.</p><p>&quot;Other than that, we try not to overthink it too much. We think that helps our guys a ton.&quot;</p><p>For Suns big man Deandre Ayton, home is the Bahamas and every game is a chance to excite his fans as tries to finish off a title run.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s a lot of people back home supporting me, watching, and I want to put on a show for them and make sure this thing happens,&quot; Ayton said. &quot;Every game I&#x27;m going I&#x27;m bringing the Bahamas with me. So I&#x27;m locked in.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1705636" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Having led the NBA in road triumphs this season, the Phoenix Suns like their chances of taking a crucial victory at Milwaukee despite a notoriously rowdy set of Bucks supporters.</p>

Having led the NBA in road triumphs this season, the Phoenix Suns like their chances of taking a crucial victory at Milwaukee despite a notoriously rowdy set of Bucks supporters.