RealGM

I love ducler, but we are falling in our game thread creating.

JARRETT ALLEN VS. ARON BAYNES – At the beginning of the season, we figured we’d be giving up a lot in this matchup. We are, but not for the reason you’d expect. Ayton was suspended for hanging out with WC PED use, but Baynes has stepped up with an even greater deep-stats impact than DeAndre, their physical marvel. JA can guard stretch bigs decently, but with Aron’s ability to bang inside as well, I see this h2h going south for us.

TAUREAN PRINCE VS. DARIO SARIC – “Finally, a traditional PF to guard”, says Taurean! Prince seems to have a better chance beating a mismatch these days, and although Dario is quite skilled for his size, speed should rule this matchup due to the pace triggered by the guards. The biggest thing that could stop TP here is rotational help at the rim. IF Taurean can draw fouls on Baynes/Kaminsky and drop pocket passes to our C’s for easy finishes, we could flip BOTH matchups, and really dominate his own.

JOE HARRIS VS. KELLY OUBRE – The Suns’ flashy slashing lefty is actually a very solid defender. Joe is going to have his hands full, as with most nights. Portland counts as once-in-a-row for stout defensive efforts by our sniper, if he can string together 2 along with his timely shooting, he can edge out his competition.

CARIS LEVERT VS. DEVIN BOOKER – As disappointed as I’ve been with CLV’s defense (wishful thinking), he can take partial credit for blanketing CJ. Of course, no rest and lots of ISO action from McCollum worked in Caris’ favor, as well. Next up is an even tougher test, against trending MVP candidate Booker. Similar to the Blazers SG, how Devin chooses to attack will determine how lopsided this will be. If he works through screens (LeVert’s Kryptonite) and lets Rubio create opportunities for him, this could get ugly for us. Thankfully, DB fancies himself a one-man offense. If he ramrods an ISO heavy style… well, he could still make Caris look silly. BUT, at least we stand a better chance.

KYRIE IRVING VS. RICKY RUBIO – Two very different styles of PGs will go toe-to-toe, and the style of the game will tip in our favor. Ricky revived his career in a methodical pace and very consistent long-range spacing with Utah. He’s had a positive impact on Phoenix, but I wonder if their young athletes will truly mesh with his slow-it-down tendencies at crunch time. Irving, OTOH, was designed in a lab for this system. When things get tight, even in his short tenure with tons of new faces, we understand that our offense flows through our closer. Of course, Kyrie is just waaaay more talented than Rubio, that counts for something. Call me crazy (-- I’ll wait --), even more important tonight will be how the floor generals interact with their teams.

Can anyone stop Spencer right now? It’s foolhardy to suggest, but I’m interested to see just how the Suns choose to guard him. If Bridges switches onto him, Temple and Nwaba should have a field day with their guards. Frank the Tank’s size and savvy could give us fits, but I see us with the upper hand here.

I’m proud of Atkinson’s efforts in Portland. Has he turned over a new leaf? Does he trust his new team now? Let’s leave broad pronouncements for another day, right now I’ll take our coach in his current mindset over almost anyone in the league. He’s in great form, and he fits our needs perfectly. With everything coalescing and the team firing on most cylinders (sorry, Rodi), I see this being the most decisive win of our young season.

PREDICTION: NETS 124, SUNS 109

WIN. That's it and that's all. I'll be watching Baynes and Booker too since I rarely get to see the Suns play.

hopefully atkinson goes with 10 men rotation and we see musa again

id like to see him get 10+ min

Man slowing down Booker is gonna be tough.

I here to see Claxton

Nic and DJ will be out there together.

Paradise wrote:Nic and DJ will be out there together.

Read on Twitter

I've been saying he projects to be more of a PF.

DJ is back for this one.

Kenny better give Cax some good min tonight. I dusted off my fave player jersey because I haven't been so hyped for a big boys since.
?s=20

I wonder how they'll going to cover Kyrie and Caris this game.

ecuhus1981 wrote:JARRETT ALLEN VS. ARON BAYNES – At the beginning of the season, we figured we’d be giving up a lot in this matchup. We are, but not for the reason you’d expect. Ayton was suspended for hanging out with WC PED use, but Baynes has stepped up with an even greater deep-stats impact than DeAndre, their physical marvel. JA can guard stretch bigs decently, but with Aron’s ability to bang inside as well, I see this h2h going south for us.

...

Thanks for that cool breakdown, ecuhus.

And a Q-- do you follow the league closely enough to know so much about those individual opponents and how they've been playing, or did you have to do research? For me, writing something like that would be a total PITA, altho maybe not so hard for die-hard NBA fans, I guess. Ah, memories of fantasy leagues...

Seriously, I'm not sure if any of the Nets coverage sites (NetsRepublic, ND, NothinButNets, TheBrooklynGame) go in to that level of detail about the impending matchups, altho TBG indeed does post-game grades like you do. Thanks again for all that. 8)

LeVert needs to finish around the rim better again.

Baynes been problem for some years now. I'm happy Saltics lost him for nothing.

Rubio is so good. Basically like Jason Kidd, every team he goes to just plays a lot better. Kyrie is going to have his hands full with this matchup, just a completely different type of player compared to Lillard, but basically just as effective and arguably more so in certain ways.

They can't miss.

Those wide open 3's again.

Rich Rane wrote:They can't miss.

I don't miss those open shots either when we play at the gym.

They're on Pace to score like 200.