Phoenix
The Suns announced the firing on Sunday night after hours of meetings at the team’s headquarters.
Assistant coach Jay Triano, a former head coach of the Toronto Raptors, was named interim coach. Triano was an assistant at Portland before coming to Phoenix last year.
Watson was promoted from assistant to interim coach of the Suns after Jeff Hornacek was fired Feb. 1, 2016. The interim tag was removed on April 19 of that year. With an extremely young team, the Suns struggled under Watson. He compiled a 33-85 record. Watson’s only full season was 2016-17, when the team went 24-58.
The 38-year-old Watson played collegiately at UCLA and in the NBA for 10 seasons. He often spoke of his long talks with John Wooden, emphasized togetherness and a family atmosphere to nurture the young squad but wins were hard to come by.
And owner Robert Sarver apparently didn’t like what he saw. Phoenix is 0-3 and two of the losses were especially ugly. The Suns were blown out 124-76 by the Portland in their season opener Wednesday night, the most one-sided loss in franchise history and the most one-sided season opener for any NBA team.
Phoenix was routed by the Clippers in Los Angeles, 130-88, on Saturday night.
Timberwolves 115, Thunder 113
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City’s Carmelo Anthony hit a 3-pointer with 5.1 seconds left to give the Thunder the lead before the Timberwolves inbounded to Wiggins, who rushed up the court and got free with help from a crushing pick by Karl-Anthony Towns before pulling up for the winner.
Nets 116, Hawks 104
New York
DeMarre Carroll added 17 points and Caris LeVert and D’Angelo Russell each had 16 points. The Nets improved to 2-1 with their second straight victory.
Canucks 4, Red Wings 1
Detroit
Vancouver scored three times in the second, outshooting the Red Wings 18-6 in the period. Baertschi, Derek Dorsett and Jake Virtanen scored in the second for the Canucks, who are 3-1 so far on a five-game trip.
Detroit has lost four in a row. Anthony Mantha scored the only goal for the Red Wings, tying it at 1 late in the first.
Vancouver opened the scoring when Bo Horvat’s shot was deflected and trickled right to Baertschi in front of the net. He stickhandled around goalie Jimmy Howard and backhanded the puck in.
Mantha’s equalizer came on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.
Dorsett gave Vancouver the lead back with his fifth goal in the past five games. Horvat found him in front of the net with a pass, and Dorsett’s shot bounced in the air off Howard before coming down behind him and going in the goal.
Baertschi’s second goal came on a wrist shot from the top of the slot, then the Canucks added another in the final minute of the period.
Detroit’s Mike Green was unable to control the puck entering the Vancouver zone and ended up knocking it backward to Daniel Sedin, who went the other way on a 2-on-1. Sedin passed to Virtanen, whose initial shot was stopped before he put away the rebound.
Sedin’s assist on that goal brought his career point total to 990.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At Minnesota on Tuesday night.
Red Wings: At Buffalo on Tuesday night.
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