Game 73: Phoenix Suns (42-30) @ Denver Nuggets (51-21) | Wednesday | 7:00PM

[sunsbg]

So 9 games remaining. Winning those three against Pels(2) and Kings is mandatory if they want to greatly improve the chance to avoid the play in. 2 games against Clippers, a team that may drop too if they go on a losing series. Another pair against MIN, one at home and last game of season which may not matter to them. Beat OKC next. No excuses if Shai is out. Take care of Cavs at home.

[Saberestar]

Pelicans @ Bucks tomorrow.
Mavs @Kings on Friday.
Clippers @ Magic on Friday.

We need to keep winning because Mavs, Kings, Pels and Clippers are gonna loss enough games in the next few games. We can avoid the Play-in for sure.

[Iceman36]

I have absolute no clue whats going on with this team...

[garrick]

Good for the suns finding a way to capitalize and win this game against the worn out Murryless Nuggets. The frustration is that this team is just so competitively bipolar! The one thing that we can count on is for the to consistently be inconsistent. Next they play the Thunder, likely without Shai, and the Pels without Ingram. We really can't catch anymore breaks than what we are currently in this stretch and not capoitalize. I just hope that they can just find some motivation and a sense of urgency for more than just every other game. And show some modicum of urgency in these last 9 games.

I still don't buy this fools gold hot and cold effort from this team. But hopefully they can prove me wrong and show they actually do belong in the contenders tier if they can only sustain their effort for more than a game or two.
Good win, now on to the next one.

I think we match up well with Denver because Jokic is just so slow and isn't going to blow past a defender, instead he's going to try to back you down in the post instead.

We have a much harder time with teams that are athletic and like to run and our poor rotations will let shooters get wide open or we allow penetration in the lane. I'm more scared of teams like the Kings or OKC beating us where our age and slow legs are exposed.

[sunsbg]

I have absolute no clue whats going on with this team...

It's the team version of Deandre Ayton when you think more about it. There are a lot of parallels when it comes to performance and fan expectations.

[Fifii]

I feel that we win this match, even without Nurkic. It just plain simple , we must shoot very well from three points shoots. We have a lot of shooters like Grayson , Beal , D Book and KD. From the bench too.

15/33 3PFG , that’s all talking about. Tad very good match , I don’t know why he play until when Nurk is out. He would get chance early, maybe he will be better than Drew which if I would be honest play solid game. Bol better shooter than Gordon, I lost any hopes for Gordon.

Good game by the team. This season is crazy. One game we lose in worse team in this league and another we win against champions

[SunsRback4Good]

Entirely too easy

Easy peasy lemon squeezy

[Puff]

Kudos to no headband for Book. Maybe it was in the dirty clothes, it must have had a bad smell to it after the loss to the Spurs.

I am hoping Numb nuts went nutso in the review of the game film of the Spurs game with the entire team including Book. His job is on the line if they do not make the playoffs. It would not surprise if Ish didn't call him up and tell him that. No more nice guy crap. He has to get this group to perform up to expectations. That is his job.

I thought we played well except for the stretch in the 3rd quarter when Book went into his ISO crap. Numb nuts called a time out and that crap stopped. Kudos to you Numb Nuts.

[King4Day]

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank and the staff straight up called out each player individually. Like, they watched film, saw a breakdown and said, "Booker, what the hell are you doing here? KD why are you throwing these passes still?"
I know when I'm embarrassed, I have a 'I'll show you' mentality. Sucks it has to come to that but maybe that's what was done.

Read on Twitter

[Jdiddy701]

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank and the staff straight up called out each player individually. Like, they watched film, saw a breakdown and said, "Booker, what the hell are you doing here? KD why are you throwing these passes still?"
I know when I'm embarrassed, I have a 'I'll show you' mentality. Sucks it has to come to that but maybe that's what was done.

Read on Twitter

Well it didn’t fully work because KD had 8 turnovers and most of them were unforced.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[King4Day]

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank and the staff straight up called out each player individually. Like, they watched film, saw a breakdown and said, "Booker, what the hell are you doing here? KD why are you throwing these passes still?"
I know when I'm embarrassed, I have a 'I'll show you' mentality. Sucks it has to come to that but maybe that's what was done.

Read on Twitter

Well it didn’t fully work because KD had 8 turnovers and most of them were unforced.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Almost every game he camps in a corner with a heel out of bounds.
Those drive me insane. The fact it happens so often is infuriating. It's not like he just gets to the spot, receives the ball, but everything happened so fast that he ended up being out of place. He'll stand there for seconds and plenty of time to adjust.

And when he brings the ball up on drives and loses it. Happens every game and he doesn't learn from it.

[sunsbg]

Frank finally figured out film actor speaches don't work and did Obradovic impersonation. Keep it up and a championship is coming.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Good for the suns finding a way to capitalize and win this game against the worn out Murryless Nuggets. The frustration is that this team is just so competitively bipolar! The one thing that we can count on is for the to consistently be inconsistent. Next they play the Thunder, likely without Shai, and the Pels without Ingram. We really can't catch anymore breaks than what we are currently in this stretch and not capoitalize. I just hope that they can just find some motivation and a sense of urgency for more than just every other game. And show some modicum of urgency in these last 9 games.

I still don't buy this fools gold hot and cold effort from this team. But hopefully they can prove me wrong and show they actually do belong in the contenders tier if they can only sustain their effort for more than a game or two.
Good win, now on to the next one.

I think we match up well with Denver because Jokic is just so slow and isn't going to blow past a defender, instead he's going to try to back you down in the post instead.

We have a much harder time with teams that are athletic and like to run and our poor rotations will let shooters get wide open or we allow penetration in the lane. I'm more scared of teams like the Kings or OKC beating us where our age and slow legs are exposed.

Good points man! I do mostly agree that we matchup fairly well against Denver positionally and in the context of style of play too. However, I for my part am not too sure that I'd want to play them in the postseason because regular season Denver and playoffs Denver are two entirely different animals inj my perspective. I say this because in our two wins against them, We either played them having a horrible off shooting night (the first game that we beat them in) wherein they just couldn't hit anything like they normally would. And in last nights' game, even though our strars played fairly average and our bench was exceptional, It was very clear that they were completely gassed after their last stretch, had key impactful players out (Murray)/injured (Gordon- plantar fascia strain)) that limited their style of play/ and sick (Nurkic (back pain/hip inflammation), Michael Porter Jr (illness), etc. In all of these things, the nuggets played like a shadow of the nightmare that they are and have been for us.

BUT IF healthy and motivated, they're an entirely different beast! Now I think your points are absolutely correct and spot on accurate about how we match up well with them man!! And I'm not overtly concerned about that contextually. I am very concerned however about our overall level of professionalism, sense of urgency, finesse style of play, and misplaced arrogance 9leading to apathetic play and dumb careless mistakes). In a 7 game series with their players healthy and motivated, I'm just not sure we have the consistency or sustainable mentality to play hard throughout and beat them with the increased pressure. I'd love for us to find our groove and stomp them into submission!! But we've carried the same issues and unaddressed weaknesses for the entire season that we haven't seen remedied at all. And I do absolutely think that these numerous weaknesses will be exploited heavily in any series matchups now that teams have templates to beat us that they'll heavily focus on to send us home and into the offseason early.

Unless, we can somehow miracously find a way to shore up these numerous exploitable weaknesses that for whatever reason we've ignored or arrogantly sidestepped for the entire season, and our coaching staff finds a way to elevate their leadership and become highly adaptive too situationally in various matchups/schemes. But you are very correct that we matchup well against them, at least physically and on paper.

[bwgood77]

So 9 games remaining. Winning those three against Pels(2) and Kings is mandatory if they want to greatly improve the chance to avoid the play in. 2 games against Clippers, a team that may drop too if they go on a losing series. Another pair against MIN, one at home and last game of season which may not matter to them. Beat OKC next. No excuses if Shai is out. Take care of Cavs at home.

For whatever reason the Clips are not playing nearly as well. I think we should pull for Dallas (hard I know) to beat Sac again to knock them down. Dallas has an easy schedule anyway. I think it will be hard to get up to 6th, but at least if we can stay at 7th, we could have two chances at winning a play in, both games at home.

I think there is a better chance at the Pels dropping, even though I think they are really good, even without Ingram. I don't really want to see one more Dallas/LAC series, not that it matters too much being a Suns fan, so in a perfect world we pass up the Mavs and Kings. But the Kings probably would need to beat them in their next one and Dallas would have to lose to Houston (playing very well and GS both a couple times) which isn't out of the question, but they are looking good. But they could have an injury to one of their key players too.

I suppose if we can beat the Clips twice and do really well in our last 9, with them kind of struggling, there is some chance they could drop to 7th. Given how teams are playing, that may be somewhat likely.

[bwgood77]

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank and the staff straight up called out each player individually. Like, they watched film, saw a breakdown and said, "Booker, what the hell are you doing here? KD why are you throwing these passes still?"
I know when I'm embarrassed, I have a 'I'll show you' mentality. Sucks it has to come to that but maybe that's what was done.

Read on Twitter

Well it didn’t fully work because KD had 8 turnovers and most of them were unforced.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Almost every game he camps in a corner with a heel out of bounds.
Those drive me insane. The fact it happens so often is infuriating. It's not like he just gets to the spot, receives the ball, but everything happened so fast that he ended up being out of place. He'll stand there for seconds and plenty of time to adjust.

And when he brings the ball up on drives and loses it. Happens every game and he doesn't learn from it.

Yeah, 8 turnovers, stepping out of bounds. Frustrating. Beal had some frustrating turnovers too, but he's generally playing well, and even if shooting bad, seems to make us much better when he's on the court. Had a great positive last night...and did generally well leading the bench when he was playing with them.

But KD more than made up for it with his great game.

But we really need to limit these turnovers. Beal and Book should handle most all the time, Book should not run in the corner, Beal can take a little better care of the ball. Seems they have miscommunication a lot. Last night on one occasion Book was near Beal and he usually will get the ball from him but he started to run right when Beal was passing it to him.

Anyway, Beal and Book are each averaging 2.5 turnovers, which isn't great, but they also it's his lowest turnovers in 7 years or so and he is averaging more assists than his career avg. Both him and Book have over a 2/1 ast/to ratio. KD is like 1.5/1.

I think our biggest key to the playoffs, if we make it in, will be limiting turnovers. We also need to take more 3s given we are like 5th in the NBA in % and 26th in 3s taken.

[sunskerr]

not gonna read into anything this team does until the play ins are over. 1 good win you cant fool me.

[spanishninja]

So 9 games remaining. Winning those three against Pels(2) and Kings is mandatory if they want to greatly improve the chance to avoid the play in. 2 games against Clippers, a team that may drop too if they go on a losing series. Another pair against MIN, one at home and last game of season which may not matter to them. Beat OKC next. No excuses if Shai is out. Take care of Cavs at home.

For whatever reason the Clips are not playing nearly as well. I think we should pull for Dallas (hard I know) to beat Sac again to knock them down. Dallas has an easy schedule anyway. I think it will be hard to get up to 6th, but at least if we can stay at 7th, we could have two chances at winning a play in, both games at home.

I think there is a better chance at the Pels dropping, even though I think they are really good, even without Ingram. I don't really want to see one more Dallas/LAC series, not that it matters too much being a Suns fan, so in a perfect world we pass up the Mavs and Kings. But the Kings probably would need to beat them in their next one and Dallas would have to lose to Houston (playing very well and GS both a couple times) which isn't out of the question, but they are looking good. But they could have an injury to one of their key players too.

I suppose if we can beat the Clips twice and do really well in our last 9, with them kind of struggling, there is some chance they could drop to 7th. Given how teams are playing, that may be somewhat likely.

yes, the one good thing about our schedule is that we can directly knock down the teams above us if we can beat them. Overtaking the Pels is more viable than overtaking the MAvs at this point.

I am definitely rooting for Houston to beat Dallas at least once.

[bwgood77]

not gonna read into anything this team does until the play ins are over. 1 good win you cant fool me.

Watch on YouTube

[bwgood77]

not gonna read into anything this team does until the play ins are over. 1 good win you cant fool me.

In our last 12 games, we have beaten Denver twice on the road, Cleveland, and then most of the other wins are not great, but we won. Philly isn't that good without Embiid, but they sure gave the Clips fits, beating them once and then nearly beating them the second time. The Hawks also beat the Clips not long ago and then beat Boston.

Our only losses in those 12 games are to Boston twice, the Bucks on the road (I know, without Giannis), and the one at SA.

But not an easy game left, and the next 2 look really tough. Curious to see how we match up against the Pelicans and Timberwolves. I wonder if the Clips will snap out of their funk.