NBA analyst fires shots at LeBron James' naysayers after Suns' blowout loss: "LeBron’s fault when Frank Vogel gets fired this time?"

NBA analyst Nick Wright made a harsh evaluation of Frank Vogel, LeBron James' former coach, following the Phoenix Suns' lopsided loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their first-round clash on Saturday. The Timberwolves dominated their regular-season tormentors, securing a 120-95 victory.

Wright hinted at Vogel's coaching during the game as a potential reason for his dismissal, but he also referenced the time when the NBA community criticized James for supposedly wanting Vogel fired during his tenure with the Lakers.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Wright said:

“Is it gonna be LeBron’s fault when Frank Vogel gets fired *this* time?”

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Frank Vogel accumulated a record of 127-98 during his coaching tenure with the Lakers and guided the team to the championship in 2020. This season, he took on the role of coaching the star-studded Suns and guided them to a 49-33 record, good for sixth place in the Western Conference.

In Game 1, the Timberwolves utilized their size advantage to dominate the Suns, outrebounding them 52-28 and outscoring them 52-34 in the paint.

Kevin Durant stood out as the sole positive in the Suns' defeat, tallying 31 points on 11-for-17 shooting.

Devin Booker contributed 18 points but struggled with a 5-for-16 shooting performance, and Bradley Beal chipped in 15 points on just 10 shot attempts.

Anthony Edwards had a statement performance in Game 1, exploding for 33 points on 14-for-24 shooting. He also had nine rebounds and six assists.

Rudy Gobert added 14 points and 16 rebounds, while Karl-Anthony Towns had 19 points and seven rebounds.

The Minnesota big three of Edwards, Gobert and Towns outrebounded the entire Suns team, 32-28.

Frank Vogel says Suns not worried about Devin Booker’s off night

Following the Game 1 defeat, Frank Vogel expressed that Devin Booker's 5-for-16 shooting performance was not a major concern for him going forward. However, he acknowledged the need to find better ways to get Booker going offensively.

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“The Phoenix Suns are a team, it's not about one player. I'm not worried about him getting going, he's one of the best scorers in the league,” Vogel said.

“We'll do a better job of looking at ways to free him up.”

Aside from Booker, the Suns' bench also struggled. They had 14 bench points, 10 coming from Royce O'Neale and four from Nassir Little and Josh Okogie, who scored two points each in garbage time. Eric Gordon went 0-for-5 from the field.

The Timberwolves had the fourth-best defensive rating in the regular season with 108.4.