Game 15: Phoenix Suns (9-5) @ Utah Jazz (10-6)l Friday l 6:00pm

[SunsRback4Good]

Another unnecessary loss…

Jazz hit unbelievable shots with Clarkson and Markannen at the end, while we didnt manage to grab rebs and convert second chance points at the end. Not for the first time this season. Really frustrated right now…

Hard to be upset about that loss.

They went down by 19 and fought back the whole way.

The Jazz shot over 50% from 3 in a game they led by 19, and it still came down to the last possession.

Its the NBA lol - teams are just gonna have nights like that. Just another regular season game.

This loss was very frustrating since last few years the Suns have owned the Jazz, but now they are on our level. The Jazz are only missing 4 starters from last years team which is roughly 25% of the roster, yet we can’t seem to beat them. No excuse in losing and Phoenix better show up in their next meeting against them.

[SkyBill40]

Yeah, or if we just shot better from 3. I mean any # of reasons could have won it. The Jazz have played very well all season and have historically been a very good home team. Not a bad loss.

Especially with how shorthanded we are.

Yeah, but we are shorthanded in part because Crowder is at home.

Saric doesn't deserve to play any minutes IMO. He can't stop any dribble penetration or stay in front of shooters and offensively he is invisible most of the time.

Yeah, Crowder is such a punk. If he was there we win for sure.

Not so sure. It always depends on what version of Crowder you get: The streaky shooter who is red hot; or, alternatively, the chucker who is ice cold.

There's no telling which will be on the floor at any given time.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Z4 Fold using Tapatalk

[spanishninja]

It's been done plenty but yes, it is improbable. Maybe there was less time than I thought though. I looked up and I thought after he came down with it there was around 1.5 sec or a little more. I've seen plenty of games with a team down by 3 with 1.2 seconds and they inbound. Those guys were right there and waiting.

It would be hard to do, but not impossible.

Not a big deal. Shooting a 2 is worthless. If there was a guy you could draw a foul from but they obviously going to not care about anything inside the arc and were not even nearly close enough to him. It would have had to have been a super heads up play though, kind of like this...

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

the situation tonight is not the same as an inbound play. the clock continued to tick while book was coming down with the rebound and would have continued to run while any pass would travel to a teammate. compare that with an inbound play where the clock does not start until a player receives the pass.

there was no other viable move than what booker did. just accept that you are wrong to think. otherwise. i would have expected such thinking from other people on this board but usually you know what you're talking about.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

I said I doubt that we get a shot off. It's highly improbable, but not impossible.

It's really not that big of a deal though. It's just not something I usually see so it was weird...he got it, I looked up at the clock to see how much time there was wondering if we had enough and then he just shot it, so I was kind of taken aback. I think a guy like LeBron or Paul or Luka would flip it out to a 3 pt shooter as quickly as they could even though they knew it was unlikely.

Anyway, I just felt like it was a pointless shot. Others obviously feel differently. I think if Ayton got a rebound down 3 and shot a 2 pt shot to lose by 1 there would probably be 10 people really calling him out and going to town on him about it.

I just wondered why he did it, but I knew there in almost all likelihood there was not enough time. When I looked I could have sworn he secured it right before or around 1.5 seconds but people have said .8. I haven't found a replay, but it doesn't really matter.

I just wonder the thinking sometimes. Like if my NFL team kicked a FG at the end down 4 instead of a hail mary because those are super improbable I'd wonder about that too even though I know hail marys in all likelihood, fail.

i already explained the reason he did it. there was ABSOLUTELY no time to do anything else, and he flipped it up hoping he got fouled. passing would have taken too long. stop thinking about it. if yoi dont believe me, go to the backyard and time yourself grabbing a rebound and then passing it to somebody. it takes longer than the time available last night.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

[sunsfan1o1]

the situation tonight is not the same as an inbound play. the clock continued to tick while book was coming down with the rebound and would have continued to run while any pass would travel to a teammate. compare that with an inbound play where the clock does not start until a player receives the pass.

there was no other viable move than what booker did. just accept that you are wrong to think. otherwise. i would have expected such thinking from other people on this board but usually you know what you're talking about.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

I said I doubt that we get a shot off. It's highly improbable, but not impossible.

It's really not that big of a deal though. It's just not something I usually see so it was weird...he got it, I looked up at the clock to see how much time there was wondering if we had enough and then he just shot it, so I was kind of taken aback. I think a guy like LeBron or Paul or Luka would flip it out to a 3 pt shooter as quickly as they could even though they knew it was unlikely.

Anyway, I just felt like it was a pointless shot. Others obviously feel differently. I think if Ayton got a rebound down 3 and shot a 2 pt shot to lose by 1 there would probably be 10 people really calling him out and going to town on him about it.

I just wondered why he did it, but I knew there in almost all likelihood there was not enough time. When I looked I could have sworn he secured it right before or around 1.5 seconds but people have said .8. I haven't found a replay, but it doesn't really matter.

I just wonder the thinking sometimes. Like if my NFL team kicked a FG at the end down 4 instead of a hail mary because those are super improbable I'd wonder about that too even though I know hail marys in all likelihood, fail.

i already explained the reason he did it. there was ABSOLUTELY no time to do anything else, and he flipped it up hoping he got fouled. passing would have taken too long. stop thinking about it. if yoi dont believe me, go to the backyard and time yourself grabbing a rebound and then passing it to somebody. it takes longer than the time available last night.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

In that situation the game is over. By the time Booker realizes he might have had enough time to pass out for a 3 the game will be over.
Damion Lee panicked because he’s not usually put in those situations so he rushed it and took an unorthodox hailmary shot when he could’ve passed it back to cam payne or Booker. But that’s 20/20 hindsight.
One play isn’t the reason we lost. Torrey Craig kept letting Markaanen get wide open layups all game.

[spanishninja]

I said I doubt that we get a shot off. It's highly improbable, but not impossible.

It's really not that big of a deal though. It's just not something I usually see so it was weird...he got it, I looked up at the clock to see how much time there was wondering if we had enough and then he just shot it, so I was kind of taken aback. I think a guy like LeBron or Paul or Luka would flip it out to a 3 pt shooter as quickly as they could even though they knew it was unlikely.

Anyway, I just felt like it was a pointless shot. Others obviously feel differently. I think if Ayton got a rebound down 3 and shot a 2 pt shot to lose by 1 there would probably be 10 people really calling him out and going to town on him about it.

I just wondered why he did it, but I knew there in almost all likelihood there was not enough time. When I looked I could have sworn he secured it right before or around 1.5 seconds but people have said .8. I haven't found a replay, but it doesn't really matter.

I just wonder the thinking sometimes. Like if my NFL team kicked a FG at the end down 4 instead of a hail mary because those are super improbable I'd wonder about that too even though I know hail marys in all likelihood, fail.

i already explained the reason he did it. there was ABSOLUTELY no time to do anything else, and he flipped it up hoping he got fouled. passing would have taken too long. stop thinking about it. if yoi dont believe me, go to the backyard and time yourself grabbing a rebound and then passing it to somebody. it takes longer than the time available last night.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

In that situation the game is over. By the time Booker realizes he might have had enough time to pass out for a 3 the game will be over.
Damion Lee panicked because he’s not usually put in those situations so he rushed it and took an unorthodox hailmary shot when he could’ve passed it back to cam payne or Booker. But that’s 20/20 hindsight.
One play isn’t the reason we lost. Torrey Craig kept letting Markaanen get wide open layups all game.

honestly the game was over by the time Payne traveled. it is really disturbing that people are being so myopic about that Booker putback, totally missing the point

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

[flagstaff]

4 of our 6 losses have come with pretty poor clutch late-game play this season...missing that magic this year I guess.

Chris Paul will fix that when he returns...

[SkyBill40]

4 of our 6 losses have come with pretty poor clutch late-game play this season...missing that magic this year I guess.

Chris Paul will fix that when he returns...

Until he's broken down again. He's not the same player we had even last year to this point, and we have to realize we're screwed unless Jones does something to secure the position going forward. PG by committee isn't going to work for us.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Z4 Fold using Tapatalk

[Thor Buthox]

4 of our 6 losses have come with pretty poor clutch late-game play this season...missing that magic this year I guess.

Chris Paul will fix that when he returns...

Until he's broken down again. He's not the same player we had even last year to this point, and we have to realize we're screwed unless Jones does something to secure the position going forward. PG by committee isn't going to work for us.

Actually, I reckon after last year, we're playing the long game.

Last year he would sit until he felt able to contribute to games. Ran his body down and fell into a million pieces during the playoffs.

This year, we're waiting until he's fully recovered to play to give him less playing load and avoiding have to deal with the problems that comes from other parts of his body compensating for his injury. If this were the playoffs, he would have missed maybe 1 to 2 games.

[bwgood77]

Another unnecessary loss…

Jazz hit unbelievable shots with Clarkson and Markannen at the end, while we didnt manage to grab rebs and convert second chance points at the end. Not for the first time this season. Really frustrated right now…

Hard to be upset about that loss.

They went down by 19 and fought back the whole way.

The Jazz shot over 50% from 3 in a game they led by 19, and it still came down to the last possession.

Its the NBA lol - teams are just gonna have nights like that. Just another regular season game.

Yeah, could have done more and won? Cut out some mistakes or scrapped a little harder for rebounds or made some easy baskets that came out? Yes, but we played hard and almost beat a good team on the road while very shorthanded.

[bwgood77]

the situation tonight is not the same as an inbound play. the clock continued to tick while book was coming down with the rebound and would have continued to run while any pass would travel to a teammate. compare that with an inbound play where the clock does not start until a player receives the pass.

there was no other viable move than what booker did. just accept that you are wrong to think. otherwise. i would have expected such thinking from other people on this board but usually you know what you're talking about.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

I said I doubt that we get a shot off. It's highly improbable, but not impossible.

It's really not that big of a deal though. It's just not something I usually see so it was weird...he got it, I looked up at the clock to see how much time there was wondering if we had enough and then he just shot it, so I was kind of taken aback. I think a guy like LeBron or Paul or Luka would flip it out to a 3 pt shooter as quickly as they could even though they knew it was unlikely.

Anyway, I just felt like it was a pointless shot. Others obviously feel differently. I think if Ayton got a rebound down 3 and shot a 2 pt shot to lose by 1 there would probably be 10 people really calling him out and going to town on him about it.

I just wondered why he did it, but I knew there in almost all likelihood there was not enough time. When I looked I could have sworn he secured it right before or around 1.5 seconds but people have said .8. I haven't found a replay, but it doesn't really matter.

I just wonder the thinking sometimes. Like if my NFL team kicked a FG at the end down 4 instead of a hail mary because those are super improbable I'd wonder about that too even though I know hail marys in all likelihood, fail.

i already explained the reason he did it. there was ABSOLUTELY no time to do anything else, and he flipped it up hoping he got fouled. passing would have taken too long. stop thinking about it. if yoi dont believe me, go to the backyard and time yourself grabbing a rebound and then passing it to somebody. it takes longer than the time available last night.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

I agree. As mentioned, I originally didn't think he had time and that it would be ill fated but thought there was perhaps a very slim chance and that down 3 instinctually someone would try to kick it out rather than take a 2, but watching when he grabbed it in the air (about 1.7) and when he landed (1.3) he definitely didn't have time. In real time after glancing at the clock myself it just seemed off to throw in a 2 with no one around when I looked back down..it didn't appear he was going for a foul.

One thing I did notice when slowing it down is that had he not taken a dribble, and just immediately jumped maybe a tad to his left while shooting, he very well could have gotten contact from Conley and gotten an And1. But Conley quickly ran away when he realized Book had it and when Book took the dribble got away from him.

By no means am I expecting him to be able to process all that and know Conley will run away from him as fast as possible and be away from him after his dribble but just something I noticed that he may have been able to get contact without the dribble and a quick jump shot leaning left.

I didn't mean for this to get into a big conversation. I just asked the question at the time because it looked odd to me. There were many things that stand out as obvious problems with that last play and how long it took for the time out. Watching that replay I have no idea what Monty was trying to have them do. Bridges and Ayton's placement and direction made no sense. Bridges was facing the way to screen for Book and Ayton was inside of him facing the other way so not set up to screen. Not that screening would have worked anyway because Utah wasn't chasing Book, they were more like playing zone and immediately when Book tried to run around the top Olynyk let him go and Vanderbilt picked him up and a second guy ran over from the corner.

If we had another timeout Payne should have called it because passing it to Lee way out there was not good and the shot he took was bad. Just a very bad play out of a timeout. Monty usually has pretty good plays out of timeouts.

[bwgood77]

Yeah, but we are shorthanded in part because Crowder is at home.

Saric doesn't deserve to play any minutes IMO. He can't stop any dribble penetration or stay in front of shooters and offensively he is invisible most of the time.

Yeah, Crowder is such a punk. If he was there we win for sure.

Not so sure. It always depends on what version of Crowder you get: The streaky shooter who is red hot; or, alternatively, the chucker who is ice cold.

There's no telling which will be on the floor at any given time.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Z4 Fold using Tapatalk

Sure, but everyone just looks at that. I'm talking playing a big long team that is hard to defend...his defense could have definitely helped with Lauri.

I really wish Bridges had Crowder's mentality to let it fly from 3. Everyone always criticizing Crowder taking too many but that is exactly what he was supposed to do. If the offense is set up for our wings/4 to stretch the floor, they need to shoot open 3s so the defense will continue to respect our shooters. Bridges is a better shooter but he doesn't take the shot enough. The other night he was like 5/8 which was awesome and how many attempts he should try and get every game. Last night he took 2 and he averages 3.1 attempts per game. Before that 8 attempt game he as averaging 2.8 attempts. When you play almost 40 minutes a night and your offensive role is to stand in the corner and spread the floor you certainly should shoot more than 3 attempts....at a minimum it should be double that.

[lilfishi22]

I don't mind these clutch L's. If anything, they give the young guys try and figure out how to win without CP3 leading the way or acting as a safety blanket. These are situations we have to learn to win without CP3 and if we lose some of them, that's OK because they are learning experiences and hopefully they pay dividends later in the season, in the playoffs or going forward when CP3 is no longer a Sun

[MrMiyagi]

I don't mind these clutch L's. If anything, they give the young guys try and figure out how to win without CP3 leading the way or acting as a safety blanket. These are situations we have to learn to win without CP3 and if we lose some of them, that's OK because they are learning experiences and hopefully they pay dividends later in the season, in the playoffs or going forward when CP3 is no longer a Sun

I feel like I'm watching Booker grow up a lot, even now. At the Warriors game, he was talking up his guys, communicating what he's seeing from the bench. He's been making defensive plays that he never use to.

Overall, I think this will be good for us, and I can't wait to see who we bring in to bolster our rotation.

[bwgood77]

I don't mind these clutch L's. If anything, they give the young guys try and figure out how to win without CP3 leading the way or acting as a safety blanket. These are situations we have to learn to win without CP3 and if we lose some of them, that's OK because they are learning experiences and hopefully they pay dividends later in the season, in the playoffs or going forward when CP3 is no longer a Sun

I feel like I'm watching Booker grow up a lot, even now. At the Warriors game, he was talking up his guys, communicating what he's seeing from the bench. He's been making defensive plays that he never use to.

Overall, I think this will be good for us, and I can't wait to see who we bring in to bolster our rotation.

Funny I felt the same way after that game. After an interview I even made a post in that game thread about how it's nice watching him grow up before our eyes.

[lilfishi22]

I don't mind these clutch L's. If anything, they give the young guys try and figure out how to win without CP3 leading the way or acting as a safety blanket. These are situations we have to learn to win without CP3 and if we lose some of them, that's OK because they are learning experiences and hopefully they pay dividends later in the season, in the playoffs or going forward when CP3 is no longer a Sun

I feel like I'm watching Booker grow up a lot, even now. At the Warriors game, he was talking up his guys, communicating what he's seeing from the bench. He's been making defensive plays that he never use to.

Overall, I think this will be good for us, and I can't wait to see who we bring in to bolster our rotation.

What we're seeing is the post-CP3 Suns and we're still without CamJo and whatever Crowder turns into. There were always going to be some hiccups along the way and for the most part CP3 has taught us how to manage games the right way to win. It's the execution part that we need more experience in without CP3.

Most of the preseason contenders are going through their own struggles and we are as well but I like that we're low-key building for the future at the same time.

[Desertfox]

Worst thing about this game was that we could have easily had Markkanen this summer... if only everyone wasn't all in on KD.