Post#59 » by younggunsmn » Sat Apr 6, 2024 8:27 am
Yikes. Well that was a giant turd.
The sad thing was Phoenix did not play well at all on offense and had a ton of sloppy turnovers.
Other than Grayson Allen nobody had a particularly good game for them.
Concerning that our offense was again so awful against a team playing playoff intensity defense.
Phoenix was hunting the passing lanes all night and playing super aggressive for a team without much size to defend the rim and rebound with, and we had no clue how to attack them.
We played like the team without a true PG in the rotation.
Mike was bad and Ant was beyond awful. He let out so many Hey's tonight on so many plays that weren't even close to a foul, just a really sloppy drive on his part. Not gonna get many calls when you're the Boy (Wolf) That Cried "Hey" all the time.
Without some hot shooting from Monte and Nickeil the scrub brigade would have been out there in the 3rd quarter.
Naz was terrible offensively and Rudy got his butt kicked all night long by Nurkic.
Rudy was guarding Nurkic way up high on the floor and it looked like a scheme thing maybe trying to take away all those handoffs, but it led to a lot of easy backdoor cuts for Phoenix.
It gets kind of frustrating watching some of the bad shots we take, particularly Ant and Naz, which are a little too well defended or a step or 2 out of what would be their comfortable range. When the game starts spiraling, guys try to bomb us back in from 3 too much and it just leads to more spiraling. Zero points in first 5 1/2 minutes, zero in first 4 minutes of 2nd quarter, and in the 3rd it seemed like we were stuck on 57 for an eternity. You can't have that and expect to win the game.
We had some spurts where our defense strung some stops together to give us a chance to get back in the game, but we promptly crapped the bed on offense each time.
We get one more chance to see Phoenix this year to try to figure some things out.
As much as we talk about Beal/Booker/Durant, it's been their defense that has given us the most problems this year.
It looks like they have a good shot at the 5th or 6th seed, and they look like the toughest 1st round opponent by far for us of the teams fighting for the 5-8 spots. We get to see the other team I'm most worried about next in the Lakers, who look like they are going to climb into that 7-8 game at a minimum, with the Kings and Pelicants injured and reeling.
Phoenix does have a super tough schedule the rest of the way though with the Clippers twice, us on the road, the Pelicants, and kings.