ROUND 1, GAME #2 Clippers @ SUNS—7 PM TNT/Bally

[Captain Ballmer]

So that's what it's feel like for your opponent to live by shooting and die by shooting, because normally that would be us. Being on the physical, hustle generator side of the scale is much more reassuring. Hope they don't overshoot us like that for the remaining of the series and we got this.

[clipperlover]

Not too worried about this one. Suns played it like their season was over. Heavy minutes again for their stars. With one day between games through Game 4, I give us the advantage.

We really blew our opportunity in the 3rd. We would get to the line, make FTs and then the Suns would come down and get to the line.

Chris Paul is a cheap shot artist and we will see how Kawhi reacts to Chris Paul's after the game antics. Kawhi going to crush Napoleon in the next game.

Lue needs to get Zu involved earlier. He also needs to get on the refs because Zu is getting pulled on on every rebound.

[esqtvd]

We need our role guys to consistently hit threes or this is a short series. Phoenix will 2pt us to death, they’re nigh unbeatable with their role players hitting from distance.

so far it's been a game where our role players have really underperformed.

plumlee kinda invisible, powell not bringing it, gordon barely salvaged an otherwise forgettable game by canning two 3's, zubac mia etc etc.

only mann and bones have done anything of note and even then they just haven't been anything special. we need more from someone to have a chance.

Little things are good. Big things are better.

I respect role players. It's easy to prop a guy who stays within himself and doesn't turd in the punchbowl. But when they are elevated above the guys who STEP UP, I get annoyed.

We didn't lose tonight, the Suns won. We didn't humiliate ourselves; nobody is to blame. And as if journeyman Robert Covington could have magically turned the game around.

C'mon pipples. Sober up, the COACH didn't lose the game. Nobody lost the game. RoCo was never ever ever gonna win this game.

Kawhi and Russ are maxxing. Who will step up?

[Dynamix]

Apparently this was the Suns' best shooting performance of the entire season. Even so, a made three here or there, those Zu FTs, the missed Russ dunk, and who knows what could happen.

As long as the team keeps coming out strong and fighting until the end, I can live with the results.

[Max Headrom]

CP3 intentionally bumping Kawhi is gonna come back to haunt the Suns. Kawhi is quiet, but you don't poke the cyborg. Dude is a stone cold killer/competitor despite the lack of emotion shown publicly...

[og15]

Just a few extra threes from literally anyone and this would've been a lot more interesting. KD and Booker basically having to play the entire game (with CP3 not too far behind) was a nice sight, let's see them keep doing it.

My only real regret was wasting a great shooting performance from Russ. I'm also kind of worried about what happens when Kawhi has an off night, hopefully we won't find out too soon.

We can't afford to get out of the driver's seat. This next game might decide the entire series, but no pressure or anything. I'm getting too old for this, need to get some tips from Ballmer.

If Kawhi has an off night it needs to be at home where the role players are more likely to hit their shots. The shot quality analysis of game 1 said he was basically hitting a lot of contested shots. As good as a player is, over multiple games, some of your looks on contested shots won't go down in a game or two.

Not too worried about this one. Suns played it like their season was over. Heavy minutes again for their stars. With one day between games through Game 4, I give us the advantage.

We really blew our opportunity in the 3rd. We would get to the line, make FTs and then the Suns would come down and get to the line.

Chris Paul is a cheap shot artist and we will see how Kawhi reacts to Chris Paul's after the game antics. Kawhi going to crush Napoleon in the next game.

Lue needs to get Zu involved earlier. He also needs to get on the refs because Zu is getting pulled on on every rebound.

Going down 0-2 as the home team in a series is a pretty detrimental situation, so yea, I would expect that that was how they would play it, there would be no other way. Just like if the Clippers were to lose game 3, they better be playing game 4 like their season is going to be over.

[mttwlsn16]

At this point, Batum needs to sit.

0 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 3 fouls.

Useless lol. Give RoCo a chance.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[MartinToVaught]

Clippers extend the series and the Suns will wear down. Without Payne, Monty doesn't trust any of the guards. They also don't have a third wing off the bench that they really trust on both ends in order to reduce Paul, Booker and Durant's minutes. They played 38, 44 and 45 tonight and a lot last game too.

They're not going to wear down as long as Lue keeps playing the worst possible defensive lineups and drop coverage instead of actually making them work for their points. We might get backdoor swept if Lue doesn't give up on his favoritism and let RoCo play. We need his defense.

Sadly, Lue was singing the praises of his four-guard lineup in the postgame, so it looks like he'd rather lose by doing things his way instead of win by admitting he was wrong. Why we can't ever have a coach who isn't stubborn to a fault is beyond me.

[MartinToVaught]

Game 3 will be tough, team has to learn to protect a lead. Easier said than done though.

Game 3 is the series, IMO. It would take a miracle to win game 4 since it's a weekend matinee game. If Lue doesn't wake up and start coaching, it's over.

[LamarWho]

Powell and Bones need to step it up or this will be over in 5. Kawhi can't do it alone and needs that 2nd and 3rd guy. Russ is a wild card every game in terms of shooting, can't count on him to provide reliable scoring. Ayton and Craig have been reliable as their 3rd and 4th option so far, we need Powell/Bones/Mann to do that as well. As for Batum, Ty Belichick will probably stick with him and maybe use MMSr as a backup plan, sorry Roco.

I am surprised T-Ross hasn't played much so far. Their biggest weakness is clearly the 2nd unit.

[og15]

So that's what it's feel like for your opponent to live by shooting and die by shooting, because normally that would be us. Being on the physical, hustle generator side of the scale is much more reassuring. Hope they don't overshoot us like that for the remaining of the series and we got this.

If a team has 67.5 TS% for a series, then I guess I'll just give props to them. Going on the road should slow down a guy like Craig for example too.

[Max Headrom]

So that's what it's feel like for your opponent to live by shooting and die by shooting, because normally that would be us. Being on the physical, hustle generator side of the scale is much more reassuring. Hope they don't overshoot us like that for the remaining of the series and we got this.

If a team has 67.5 TS% for a series, then I guess I'll just give props to them. Going on the road should slow down a guy like Craig for example too.

The fact that they had their best shooting night of the entire season and the Clippers were still in it until about 2 minutes to go bodes well for the Clippers considering the role players were a disaster last night.

[clipperlover]

Suns being out of their safe space should favor us. Suns haven't beat a playoff team on the road since Feb 7 (Brooklyn). They were only 17-24 on the road this year (6-6 after the trade).

We need to jump on them early and often. I expect our role players to be better at home.

[playaloc916]

Time for NBA's Bill Belichick to work his magic. And yes, bench shot badly and can't afford to play like that 2 games in a row if we are to have a chance. Wasted a "good" game by Russ too...

[clipperlover]

We need to do something to open up the driving lanes. Powell, EG and Russ are getting swarmed when they drive. Russ and Norm did have 12 FTAs last night, but could earn more.

I don't expect Powell and Hyland to combine for 2-14 from 3. Powell has been a 40% 3PT shooter on the road and at home on the season. So, I expect him to regress to the mean. If Powell starts hitting his 3s, then it will open up his drives and blow the game open.

[nickhx2]

quietly confident about g3. kawhi was pretty good but honestly this is probably his floor for the playoffs. happy to bet on him being the best player in the playoffs and i expect him to turn in a dominating performance next game. even just being a little better will have us in great shape.

[og15]

Clippers extend the series and the Suns will wear down. Without Payne, Monty doesn't trust any of the guards. They also don't have a third wing off the bench that they really trust on both ends in order to reduce Paul, Booker and Durant's minutes. They played 38, 44 and 45 tonight and a lot last game too.

They're not going to wear down as long as Lue keeps playing the worst possible defensive lineups and drop coverage instead of actually making them work for their points. We might get backdoor swept if Lue doesn't give up on his favoritism and let RoCo play. We need his defense.

Sadly, Lue was singing the praises of his four-guard lineup in the postgame, so it looks like he'd rather lose by doing things his way instead of win by admitting he was wrong. Why we can't ever have a coach who isn't stubborn to a fault is beyond me.

The question becomes what pick and roll defense can the C's play effectively? Switching isn't a viable strategy with Zubac or Plumlee, and playing RoCo at C and trying to switch won't work either, old (less old) CP3 already showed how easily he can burn RoCo in iso on the perimeter when he was on OKC.

So they can hard show to either force the ball out of the pick and roll ball handlers hand, or slow them down and live with whatever happens with the roller in that situation, but then you open up a pick and pop three, roll man dive to the basket or allowing the other star to attack closeouts on the weak side (Booker destroyed this).

Team isn't going to implement a pre-switch scheme like Denver does in the middle of a playoffs series, as so that isn't happening.

Doubling or blitzing the ball handler of course is a dangerous game to play since they have enough guys who can attack the 4 v 3 and make you pay. I don't know, we'll see what the team decides is the best course of action.

[Clemenza]

We need our role guys to consistently hit threes or this is a short series. Phoenix will 2pt us to death, they’re nigh unbeatable with their role players hitting from distance.

so far it's been a game where our role players have really underperformed.

plumlee kinda invisible, powell not bringing it, gordon barely salvaged an otherwise forgettable game by canning two 3's, zubac mia etc etc.

only mann and bones have done anything of note and even then they just haven't been anything special. we need more from someone to have a chance.

Little things are good. Big things are better.

I respect role players. It's easy to prop a guy who stays within himself and doesn't turd in the punchbowl. But when they are elevated above the guys who STEP UP, I get annoyed.

We didn't lose tonight, the Suns won. We didn't humiliate ourselves; nobody is to blame. And as if journeyman Robert Covington could have magically turned the game around.

C'mon pipples. Sober up, the COACH didn't lose the game. Nobody lost the game. RoCo was never ever ever gonna win this game.

Kawhi and Russ are maxxing. Who will step up?

Don't take things out of context and add a ton of hyperbole on top of it. RoCo is not going to win the game but a couple of made three's and an extra bucket or two would helped out tremendously. At least make them think twice before double teaming Kawhi on every possession. That's all we were looking for, not a game changing star performance from him. Batum with 3 points in game 1 and 0 points last night is downright horrific for the starting PF.

[TrueLAfan]

We didn’t lose because of Lue or matchups. We lost because we didn’t defend and we didn’t get enough third tier scoring … and Lue rotated people in and out like he should’ve. We scored 50 points in the second half, despite Batum, Zu, Mann, Plumlee, and Bones going a combined 3-10 and getting 10 points in 41 minutes. We were still acceptable on O in the 2nd half because Kawhi, Westbrook, Powell and Gordon were very good. Not spectacular, but very good—40 points on 12-24 shooting. Double that … I’ll take 80 points a game out of those 4 six days a week and twice on Sunday.

We lost because Phoenix as a team shot 61% in the second half. Paul and Booker were 16-22, ffs. I’m mystified by a couple of the posts complaining about Powell—who I thought was rock solid. I wish he had shot/scored a bit more, but anyone that is complaining about 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, a block and 0 turnovers in less than 28 minutes … mmm. I get it that he was 4-11 from the field, but let’s just say I think there were (many) others with (much) poorer games.

I think we should give RoCo a shot, because Torrey Craig is eating us alive. He’s the difference in the series. I expect Booker and Durant to play well. Torrey Craig averaging 20 a game on 70% shooting? Not expected. And not acceptable. It’s interesting to me that the place where we’re missing PG, really, is on the defensive side.

[esqtvd]

so far it's been a game where our role players have really underperformed.

plumlee kinda invisible, powell not bringing it, gordon barely salvaged an otherwise forgettable game by canning two 3's, zubac mia etc etc.

only mann and bones have done anything of note and even then they just haven't been anything special. we need more from someone to have a chance.

Little things are good. Big things are better.

I respect role players. It's easy to prop a guy who stays within himself and doesn't turd in the punchbowl. But when they are elevated above the guys who STEP UP, I get annoyed.

We didn't lose tonight, the Suns won. We didn't humiliate ourselves; nobody is to blame. And as if journeyman Robert Covington could have magically turned the game around.

C'mon pipples. Sober up, the COACH didn't lose the game. Nobody lost the game. RoCo was never ever ever gonna win this game.

Kawhi and Russ are maxxing. Who will step up?

Don't take things out of context and add a ton of hyperbole on top of it. RoCo is not going to win the game but a couple of made three's and an extra bucket or two would helped out tremendously. At least make them think twice before double teaming Kawhi on every possession. That's all we were looking for, not a game changing star performance from him. Batum with 3 points in game 1 and 0 points last night is downright horrific for the starting PF.

"We?" Who's "we?" "We" got what "we" asked for. I warned that if Batum's workload increased he would struggle. And now "we" want the RoCo magic wand? OK fine.

I disagree that the solution to a 10-point deficit is to throw more **** at the wall and hope it sticks or the coach is a moron. "We" [why would you want to associate yourself with THEM? lol] were calling for Ty and Westbrook's heads halfway through Game 1 and he won the damn game for us. Then followed it with a terrific Game 2.

Actually I'm hopeful that the "wild card" playing time Ty is investing in Bones Hyland will pay off. First of all he has a REAL job--backup PG--and IMO has a much better chance than RoCo of catching fire and moving the meter. It might not work but Ty does have a plan.