Game 39: Suns @ Cavs 1/4/2023

[ijspeelman]

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[ijspeelman]

Well, we are half way through the second and are 0/13 from three and have scored 22 points.

We are only down 8.

[ijspeelman]

We may have witnessed the 71 point game by Mitchell, but you just witnessed the Raul Neto junkyard dog game.

[JujitsuFlip]

We may have witnessed the 71 point game by Mitchell, but you just witnessed the Raul Neto junkyard dog game.

I seen he had 14 points.

[TheLand13]

I just love this team. Terrible shooting night and we still pull off the win. Incredible stuff from a team continuing to do incredible things.

[ijspeelman]

We may have witnessed the 71 point game by Mitchell, but you just witnessed the Raul Neto junkyard dog game.

I seen he had 14 points.

It was more the scrappy defense and how he ignited the team to comeback.

Suns were only up by 10 points, but how the offense was rolling tonight it was basically 20.

[SunsRback4Good]

Suns and Cavs brought back mid 2000’s Pistons vs Spurs finals low scoring games. It was a thing of beauty both teams displaying defense like we’ve never seen before.

[ijspeelman]

I am not the biggest fan of dwelling on clutch play, but I did like seeing Mobley hit a clutch jumper to win the game.

Something I have noticed with him recently is how little he shoots jump shots as compared to his rookie year. With the addition of Mitchell, volume decrease makes sense, going from 17.8 FGA/100 to 15.5. But, he is also shooting less 3P, 16-3P, 10-16, and 3-10 foot shots as a % of his FGA as compared to last year.

[JonFromVA]

Evan clearly needs to get back in to the swing of things, but yes, hitting that shot when the Suns predictably collapsed on Mitchell was sweet.

And I also found it curious that Mikal Bridges, aka one of the guys we'd likely all say would be our ideal 3&D SF kind of stunk in this game. And while his 3pt% has been fine this season, his TS% has dropped. The Suns have not been firing on all cylinders this season, and that often means a lot of open shots they are used to creating are not happening (for whatever reason).

Neto continues to do terrific things when he gets minutes, and JBB has really got to consider giving Cedi an extended shot at the SF spot. He has a really short rope on certain players. Diakite airballed a 3pter and was yanked a few games ago.

[toooskies]

Evan clearly needs to get back in to the swing of things, but yes, hitting that shot when the Suns predictably collapsed on Mitchell was sweet.

And I also found it curious that Mikal Bridges, aka one of the guys we'd likely all say would be our ideal 3&D SF kind of stunk in this game. And while his 3pt% has been fine this season, his TS% has dropped. The Suns have not been firing on all cylinders this season, and that often means a lot of open shots they are used to creating are not happening (for whatever reason).

Neto continues to do terrific things when he gets minutes, and JBB has really got to consider giving Cedi an extended shot at the SF spot. He has a really short rope on certain players. Diakite airballed a 3pter and was yanked a few games ago.

Cedi is third in the league in plus minus, as of right now. Led the team in plus minus yesterday, as he often does. His playstyle reminds the rest of the team that, yes, it's okay to run in transition and get into the offense quickly before the defense gets set! It's not really about him playing well as much as it is the energy he plays with. Which is great because of all the above-average passers we have on the court-- he works great with pass-ahead guys like Love. Okoro's at his best when he's running in transition, too, but we don't look for him as often because he doesn't attack the hoop as often as Cedi does.

He's honestly a great fit with the bench unit because a) I don't think he can keep that energy up for 30 minutes and b) the 2nd unit guys like to push the pace a lot more than the starters. He gets his chance to finish games when he's on, and that's probably the best way to use him.

[ijspeelman]

Evan clearly needs to get back in to the swing of things, but yes, hitting that shot when the Suns predictably collapsed on Mitchell was sweet.

And I also found it curious that Mikal Bridges, aka one of the guys we'd likely all say would be our ideal 3&D SF kind of stunk in this game. And while his 3pt% has been fine this season, his TS% has dropped. The Suns have not been firing on all cylinders this season, and that often means a lot of open shots they are used to creating are not happening (for whatever reason).

Neto continues to do terrific things when he gets minutes, and JBB has really got to consider giving Cedi an extended shot at the SF spot. He has a really short rope on certain players. Diakite airballed a 3pter and was yanked a few games ago.

Cedi is third in the league in plus minus, as of right now. Led the team in plus minus yesterday, as he often does. His playstyle reminds the rest of the team that, yes, it's okay to run in transition and get into the offense quickly before the defense gets set! It's not really about him playing well as much as it is the energy he plays with. Which is great because of all the above-average passers we have on the court-- he works great with pass-ahead guys like Love. Okoro's at his best when he's running in transition, too, but we don't look for him as often because he doesn't attack the hoop as often as Cedi does.

He's honestly a great fit with the bench unit because a) I don't think he can keep that energy up for 30 minutes and b) the 2nd unit guys like to push the pace a lot more than the starters. He gets his chance to finish games when he's on, and that's probably the best way to use him.

Interesting Cedi tidbit to add onto this.

He is nearly having his most efficient season (57.4% TS%) while shooting nearly his lowest 3P% (34.0%). I assume this is due to his % of 2P Ast'd being his highest ever (75.3%) leading to a 77.9% FG% within 3ft of the rim.

[JonFromVA]

Evan clearly needs to get back in to the swing of things, but yes, hitting that shot when the Suns predictably collapsed on Mitchell was sweet.

And I also found it curious that Mikal Bridges, aka one of the guys we'd likely all say would be our ideal 3&D SF kind of stunk in this game. And while his 3pt% has been fine this season, his TS% has dropped. The Suns have not been firing on all cylinders this season, and that often means a lot of open shots they are used to creating are not happening (for whatever reason).

Neto continues to do terrific things when he gets minutes, and JBB has really got to consider giving Cedi an extended shot at the SF spot. He has a really short rope on certain players. Diakite airballed a 3pter and was yanked a few games ago.

Cedi is third in the league in plus minus, as of right now. Led the team in plus minus yesterday, as he often does. His playstyle reminds the rest of the team that, yes, it's okay to run in transition and get into the offense quickly before the defense gets set! It's not really about him playing well as much as it is the energy he plays with. Which is great because of all the above-average passers we have on the court-- he works great with pass-ahead guys like Love. Okoro's at his best when he's running in transition, too, but we don't look for him as often because he doesn't attack the hoop as often as Cedi does.

He's honestly a great fit with the bench unit because a) I don't think he can keep that energy up for 30 minutes and b) the 2nd unit guys like to push the pace a lot more than the starters. He gets his chance to finish games when he's on, and that's probably the best way to use him.

Good points, but good play and good units should be rewarded and you know we just scored all of 33 points in a half.

Cedi is currently at the cut off point for 3pt shooting on our team, we have a bunch of guys shooting better than his 34% and 4 guys JBB has been starting ahead of him all shooting under 30%. Our crappy floor spacing turns outright putrid without Garland when JBB decides to take 2 from Stevens/Okoro/LeVert to combine with Allen and Mobley.

I suspect Cedi's fear factor as a shooter is higher than his present 3pt%. He's not the type of player you want to let get in to a shooting rhythm.