Suns React to Altercations vs Grizzlies

Monday night’s Phoenix Suns vs. Memphis Grizzlies was nothing short of chippy. 

Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Nick Richards, Cam Spencer all picked up technical fouls, as the Grizzlies came out on top with a 120-118 victory.

Richards was handed the first tech after a shove to Grizzlies big man Jay Huff early in the third quarter. 

Then, there were two notable back-and-forths between the teams, the first one at the end of the third quarter when Desmond Bane and Durant went face to face after Spencer hit a 3 and was talking to Durant. 

"I mean, they got a lot of underdogs, guys who grinded their way up, kind of overachieved ... so they play with a chip on their shoulder, and I can respect that," Durant said (via The Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin). "That's how Cam Spencer got on the court when he was coming up, that's how Bane got on the court coming up, just being aggressive, showing that they care.

"When you come to Memphis, you've got to match their energy if you want to stay in the game. And that's the type of energy I love to display, it's a fun game."

Later, Booker and Bane jawed back and forth at each other going into a timeout in the fourth quarter, and Booker was assessed a technical. 

Booker, who also was involved in an altercation with Spencer earlier in the season, was confused at why the officials gave him the tech. 

“The officials have to do a better job of understanding it is a high-intensity game,” Booker said (via Rankin). “There's a lot at stake. Letting the whistle fly. Like my tech shouldn't have happened.

“We tied the ball game up. So I said, ‘They were just talking all that s---, we're right back in it.' Then I asked the ref, ‘Did you hear what I said?' He said, just what I repeated, and said, ‘I have to keep the game under control after the situation that just happened.'”

With the loss, the Suns finished 0-4 against Memphis this season and have a long way to go with only 17 games left, sitting at 30-35 on the year and 2.5 games back of the last play-in spot.