Deandre Ayton just wants to win.
The 20-year-old rookie exchanged words with injured Suns star Devin Booker — who is out indefinitely with a hamstring issue — in the locker room after the team’s 108-86 loss to the Trail Blazers last week. Ayton discussed the incident for the first time Monday in an interview with the Arizona Republic.
"That’s just two guys that want to win, to be honest,” Ayton said. “We just want to be winners. We are winners. It is what it is.
“It’s just us being competitors and wanting to win. That’s about it.”
The Suns selected Ayton with the top pick in the 2018 draft and he is averaging 15.8 points as well as 10.1 rebounds per game in his first NBA season. But, Phoenix enters play Monday with an NBA worst 4-22 record.
Ayton said after the loss to Portland and the verbal confrontation he was an “emotional guy.”
“I start to feel stuff,” Ayton said Thursday. “When I don’t sense it and the energy is not there, that’s when you start to hear my mouth. I don’t care who it is. Nineteen-year vet or 15 years, it don’t matter. We all have a job to do and I have to step it up a little more, too.”
Booker, a fourth-year veteran, has not played since he re-injured his hamstring against the Lakers on Dec. 2. He is averaging 23.5 points and 6.7 assists in 19 games this season.
The Suns will host the Clippers on Monday.
