Game 32: Washington Wizards (11-20) @ Phoenix Suns (19-12) l Tuesday l 7:00pm l BSAZ

[dremill24]

I hate the internet...

It's fun watching sunsfan101, kennydorglas, bigfoot and Slim have discussions.

Is it, though?

[bwgood77]

Really? Lol
Bridges is trash. He shows up once a week and plays no defense. Except everyone says he does but he doesn’t stop anyone. Not a soul. I don’t understand why people think he’s actually a good defender. I think Booker is better than him. He’s the worst defender in the starting lineup not counting Paul, but that’s cuz if age.
Pay more attention to Bridges and you will see his man blow by him every time. No matter who it is. From Luka to Beal to Lonnie walker. Son is a liability on defense.
How many mistakes would we find if we did this for Mikal? Dude is a chucker and he sucks. Lowest IQ on the team tied with Shamet.

Checks and balances.
If people are gonna hate on Ayton for having 30 and 13 and Uber efficient I’m gonna hate on their beloved Mikal who does absolutely nothing most nights.
It’s only fair.

I don't hate on either. They both have bad games on occasion. Bridges will often have his guys score a lot of points on him. Why? Because he guards the best guys in the NBA. They will still score a lot, but he will make it tougher on them much of the time. He is voted among top defenders for a reason. We put him on their best guy every night for a reason. Ayton is up and down defensively..he was better a couple years ago. He can be really good and not so good. Book and Paul usually guard the 3 pt shooters so they don't have to do much.

Bridges and Ayton have always been our two most efficient players...but they do have some subpar offensive games. Bridges a little more lately but both will go through occasional stretches where they have a couple bad ones in 5 games or 3 in 7. Book too has bad ones...he had 4 terrible ones in a row. Probably his worst streak ever.

Part of all this is because those 3 guys have to carry us on offense...and when Book is out the opposing defense can key more in on those two guys, particularly Ayton. Despite that he still did well offensively last night. A lot of shot creation too which was nice as well as getting to the line.

I can see hating on Shamet at times, but he does put effort on D. He just needs to shoot more like last night...come off the screens because he can hit those where he stops on a dime and shoots. Before last night he would not take the shot and drive and dish too much...that's not what he is there for. Take the shot..don't drive a dish to a worse shooter.

[bwgood77]

I hate the internet...

It's fun watching sunsfan101, kennydorglas, bigfoot and Slim have discussions.

Is it, though?

No, and I let myself get dragged in too much. I did moreso last year and was trying to ignore more this year but I guess lately I can't help myself.

But I have a lot better things I could be doing.

[sunsfan1o1]

Checks and balances.
If people are gonna hate on Ayton for having 30 and 13 and Uber efficient I’m gonna hate on their beloved Mikal who does absolutely nothing most nights.
It’s only fair.

I don't hate on either. They both have bad games on occasion. Bridges will often have his guys score a lot of points on him. Why? Because he guards the best guys in the NBA. They will still score a lot, but he will make it tougher on them much of the time. He is voted among top defenders for a reason. We put him on their best guy every night for a reason. Ayton is up and down defensively..he was better a couple years ago. He can be really good and not so good. Book and Paul usually guard the 3 pt shooters so they don't have to do much.

Bridges and Ayton have always been our two most efficient players...but they do have some subpar offensive games. Bridges a little more lately but both will go through occasional stretches where they have a couple bad ones in 5 games or 3 in 7. Book too has bad ones...he had 4 terrible ones in a row. Probably his worst streak ever.

Part of all this is because those 3 guys have to carry us on offense...and when Book is out the opposing defense can key more in on those two guys, particularly Ayton. Despite that he still did well offensively last night. A lot of shot creation too which was nice as well as getting to the line.

I can see hating on Shamet at times, but he does put effort on D. He just needs to shoot more like last night...come off the screens because he can hit those where he stops on a dime and shoots. Before last night he would not take the shot and drive and dish too much...that's not what he is there for. Take the shot..don't drive a dish to a worse shooter.

I understand that. You guard the best player they will take a lot of shots and score.
But if you read what I said ANYONE scores on Bridges.
He doesn’t make it hard for anyone. I haven’t seen anyone struggle against him this year. It is what it is.
If you watch Bridges more closely like I do you will see what I mean. Ayton gets deep post position on Bridges side and Bridges will never pass it to him. He just drives it and turns it over or takes his little jump shot in the paint.
You can dig it up if you want but I’m pretty sure most guys Bridges defends have good games. Star or role player. He’s not on role players too often but when he is they go at him.
Once Booker and Cam get back his bad offense shouldn’t be of as much concern but when people are pulling up videos of 2 times in a 48 minute game of missed help coverage that needs to be checked.
Ayton played great. Nothing else should be said.
Be objective and not a hater.
Objective criticism Bridges, Paul and Craig played like trash. Only Ayton, Biyombo and Shamet showed up.
That’s all.

[SunsRback4Good]

It's fun watching sunsfan101, kennydorglas, bigfoot and Slim have discussions.

Is it, though?

No, and I let myself get dragged in too much. I did moreso last year and was trying to ignore more this year but I guess lately I can't help myself.

But I have a lot better things I could be doing.

If you can survive my sarcasm you can basically survive anything on this site. I applaud you BW.

[bigfoot]

Watch around the 4:40 mark and you'll see why Bridges is giving Ayton an earful during the free throws.

Watch on YouTube

Clearly, Ayton is more worried about Bridges' man and the weakside than what is happening on the ball. Ayton turns his head - a cardinal sin - to say something to Bridges and the rest is history. Whatever happened to the center worrying about defending the paint?

Watch on YouTube

His defense at about 9:03 was suspect

His poor transition defense at 9:13

Monty going off on him in the huddle isn't a surprise. Bridges going off on him on the court isn't a surprise. It's so hard to believe some folks don't see this stuff about Ayton.

Again lapses of focus and energy are his problem on both sides of the ball

yeah, watched that like 10 times. No use in playing blame game. Mikal was far far from perfect last night.

Ayton isn't on Bridges guy either. Do you see that guy wide open behind the 3 pt line way behind Bridges? That's Bridges guy. He completely missed him. Ayton was on the right guy, his guy, Taj, and then at the end helped on the play when Deni blew by Paul. Unfortunately, it ended up being a foul. Sure you could blame him for that. That is likely what Bridges was mad at, giving him 3 free throws when down by 5....but Bridges is lucky he didn't give up a wide open 3.

Need to see the big picture instead of just looking at things on a microscope at Ayton. Paul was on Deni, let him blow by and Ayton tried to help. He fouled, not good, but Bridges forgot where his guy was...or missed it completely.

Monty was going off on both of them by the way...Ayton was just still talking, while Bridges went into his shell. Monty is pointing at both of them to quit arguing and move on from a play or blaming each other.

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

[lilfishi22]

Watch around the 4:40 mark and you'll see why Bridges is giving Ayton an earful during the free throws.

Watch on YouTube

Clearly, Ayton is more worried about Bridges' man and the weakside than what is happening on the ball. Ayton turns his head - a cardinal sin - to say something to Bridges and the rest is history. Whatever happened to the center worrying about defending the paint?

Watch on YouTube

His defense at about 9:03 was suspect

His poor transition defense at 9:13

Monty going off on him in the huddle isn't a surprise. Bridges going off on him on the court isn't a surprise. It's so hard to believe some folks don't see this stuff about Ayton.

Again lapses of focus and energy are his problem on both sides of the ball

yeah, watched that like 10 times. No use in playing blame game. Mikal was far far from perfect last night.

Ayton isn't on Bridges guy either. Do you see that guy wide open behind the 3 pt line way behind Bridges? That's Bridges guy. He completely missed him. Ayton was on the right guy, his guy, Taj, and then at the end helped on the play when Deni blew by Paul. Unfortunately, it ended up being a foul. Sure you could blame him for that. That is likely what Bridges was mad at, giving him 3 free throws when down by 5....but Bridges is lucky he didn't give up a wide open 3.

Need to see the big picture instead of just looking at things on a microscope at Ayton. Paul was on Deni, let him blow by and Ayton tried to help. He fouled, not good, but Bridges forgot where his guy was...or missed it completely.

Monty was going off on both of them by the way...Ayton was just still talking, while Bridges went into his shell. Monty is pointing at both of them to quit arguing and move on from a play or blaming each other.

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

Who knows exactly what they were shouting about but while DA was a bit late on that rotation, I feel it's unfair to suggest DA was the only one who made a mistake in the game. It's not like other dudes haven't missed or were marginally late on a rotation before. It sucks it happened in a tight game but to call DA out for a slightly late rotation when we shouldn't even be in that position in the first place is unfair

[bigfoot]

I hate the internet...

It's fun watching sunsfan101, kennydorglas, bigfoot and Slim have discussions.

What's interesting is I haven't had a discussion with any of them. Bad stuff happened in the last six minutes when the Suns had a lead and Ayton returned. I simply pointed out why Bridges was pissed at Ayton.

[bigfoot]

yeah, watched that like 10 times. No use in playing blame game. Mikal was far far from perfect last night.

Ayton isn't on Bridges guy either. Do you see that guy wide open behind the 3 pt line way behind Bridges? That's Bridges guy. He completely missed him. Ayton was on the right guy, his guy, Taj, and then at the end helped on the play when Deni blew by Paul. Unfortunately, it ended up being a foul. Sure you could blame him for that. That is likely what Bridges was mad at, giving him 3 free throws when down by 5....but Bridges is lucky he didn't give up a wide open 3.

Need to see the big picture instead of just looking at things on a microscope at Ayton. Paul was on Deni, let him blow by and Ayton tried to help. He fouled, not good, but Bridges forgot where his guy was...or missed it completely.

Monty was going off on both of them by the way...Ayton was just still talking, while Bridges went into his shell. Monty is pointing at both of them to quit arguing and move on from a play or blaming each other.

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

Who knows exactly what they were shouting about but while DA was a bit late on that rotation, I feel it's unfair to suggest DA was the only one who made a mistake in the game. It's not like other dudes haven't missed or were marginally late on a rotation before. It sucks it happened in a tight game but to call DA out for a slightly late rotation when we shouldn't even be in that position in the first place is unfair

Well, it sure made Bridges mad. It made Monty mad too. They called out his mistake on TV before me. I'm just showing the play where it happened.

The real problem wasn't that he missed rotation which obviously can happen. The mistake is really a fundamental high school error. DA turned his head away from the ball-handler and pick-roll for a split second. That was why he was late.

Again. Watch the play at 4:40 in the first video. It is obvious. You'll have to slow it down to see his head turn.

Now ask yourself why would Ayton look away for an instant from the strongside to the weakside? It just doesn't make any sense.

[sunsfan1o1]

I hate the internet...

It's fun watching sunsfan101, kennydorglas, bigfoot and Slim have discussions.

What's interesting is I haven't had a discussion with any of them. Bad stuff happened in the last six minutes when the Suns had a lead and Ayton returned. I simply pointed out why Bridges was pissed at Ayton.

These are lies. LOL. Thats so crazy. Wow! Bigfoot doesn't even know what he types.

His defense at about 9:03 was suspect

His poor transition defense at 9:13

Monty going off on him in the huddle isn't a surprise. Bridges going off on him on the court isn't a surprise. It's so hard to believe some folks don't see this stuff about Ayton.

Again lapses of focus and energy are his problem on both sides of the ball

Well, it sure made Bridges mad. It made Monty mad too. They called out his mistake on TV before me. I'm just showing the play where it happened.

The real problem wasn't that he missed rotation which obviously can happen. The mistake is really a fundamental high school error. DA turned his head away from the ball-handler and pick-roll for a split second. That was why he was late.

Again. Watch the play at 4:40 in the first video. It is obvious. You'll have to slow it down to see his head turn.

Now ask yourself why would Ayton look away for an instant from the strongside to the weakside? It just doesn't make any sense.

LMAO. This dude is nuts. Its obvious but you have to slow the replay down and look closely with a microscope to see it. HA hA. You're picking on Ayton at this point. You're a hater, you have no factual objective data against DA it's just pure hate because you're probably head over heels for Doncic and blame DA for the Suns not picking him.

I understand now. Carry on.

[lilfishi22]

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

Who knows exactly what they were shouting about but while DA was a bit late on that rotation, I feel it's unfair to suggest DA was the only one who made a mistake in the game. It's not like other dudes haven't missed or were marginally late on a rotation before. It sucks it happened in a tight game but to call DA out for a slightly late rotation when we shouldn't even be in that position in the first place is unfair

Well, it sure made Bridges mad. It made Monty mad too. They called out his mistake on TV before me. I'm just showing the play where it happened.

The real problem wasn't that he missed rotation which obviously can happen. The mistake is really a fundamental high school error. DA turned his head away from the ball-handler and pick-roll for a split second. That was why he was late.

Again. Watch the play at 4:40 in the first video. It is obvious. You'll have to slow it down to see his head turn.

Now ask yourself why would Ayton look away for an instant from the strongside to the weakside? It just doesn't make any sense.

Watched it probably a dozen and a half times now to see what else it could've been. Could be right that Mikal was mad about DA's late rotation but in DA's defens, you have to be aware of your surroundings and DA gambled a split second to make sure his assignment is covered by someone (Mikal) before he showed on Deni which to me was at worst, marginally late.

DA's biggest mistake was biting on the pump fake.

[bwgood77]

Watch around the 4:40 mark and you'll see why Bridges is giving Ayton an earful during the free throws.

Watch on YouTube

Clearly, Ayton is more worried about Bridges' man and the weakside than what is happening on the ball. Ayton turns his head - a cardinal sin - to say something to Bridges and the rest is history. Whatever happened to the center worrying about defending the paint?

Watch on YouTube

His defense at about 9:03 was suspect

His poor transition defense at 9:13

Monty going off on him in the huddle isn't a surprise. Bridges going off on him on the court isn't a surprise. It's so hard to believe some folks don't see this stuff about Ayton.

Again lapses of focus and energy are his problem on both sides of the ball

yeah, watched that like 10 times. No use in playing blame game. Mikal was far far from perfect last night.

Ayton isn't on Bridges guy either. Do you see that guy wide open behind the 3 pt line way behind Bridges? That's Bridges guy. He completely missed him. Ayton was on the right guy, his guy, Taj, and then at the end helped on the play when Deni lost Craig. Unfortunately, it ended up being a foul. Sure you could blame him for that. That is likely what Bridges was mad at, giving him free throws when down by 5....but Bridges is lucky he didn't give up a wide open 3.

Need to see the big picture instead of just looking at things on a microscope at Ayton. Paul was on Deni, let him blow by and Ayton tried to help. He fouled, not good, but Bridges forgot where his guy was...or missed it completely.

Monty was going off on both of them by the way...Ayton was just still talking, while Bridges went into his shell. Monty is pointing at both of them to quit arguing and move on from a play or blaming each other.

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

Clearly you still missed it because you are only watching Ayton looking for mistakes. I'll start earlier. Shamet was on Deni, Craig was on Beal. Beal went for the switch on the bottom onto Beal and Craig failed to switch onto Deni, which is what freed him. Craig made the mistake. That's when Ayton recognized it and moved to help.

Ayton actually went to help after Craig's mistake and WAS there in time and was in front of him BEFORE he shot it, he just went up before Deni did, which was his mistake. Then Deni jumped..Ayton was there, Deni just pump faked, and he was actually kind of lucky to get the foul because Ayton came down next to him..

Anyway, Monty was angry because they were spending time during the opposing free throw arguing the whole time. In other clips you can see him watching the argument almost like "what the hell are these guys doing?"

This stuff is all clear as day.

btw, I don't think you understand what plain as mud means..though the phrase is actually clear as mud...so you got the phrase and meaning wrong..and no, changing the phrase doesn't make the meaning the opposite. All sorts of confusion going on here.

You seem to be making this a lot bigger than it was anyway and trying to find a way to blame it on Ayton. No one was pissed. They had a discussion...probably an argument, who knows over what exactly, at midcourt..none of can surmise exactly what hit was about. Monty let them know to move on. They have moved on...they did right after that.

[Slim Charless]

You clearly need to rewatch the play at 4:40 in the first clip

1. After the pick-n-roll Shamet and Craig trapped the ballhandler.
2. CP3 is covering the 3-point shooter off the upper left screen who would have had a wide-open three if CP3 rotated to Deni.
3. Ayton needed to rotate to Deni and let Bridges have Taj and the weak side corner three shooter.

That is freaking plain as mud and standard NBA defense. Ayton missed his rotation because his head was turned for a split sec. It boggles my mind that Ayton would even glimpse weakside which caused him to be late for the rotation. Bridges was pissed. Monty was pissed. Ask yourself how often does this stuff have to happen for Bridges and Monty to snap?

DA is a mental midget on the court.

Who knows exactly what they were shouting about but while DA was a bit late on that rotation, I feel it's unfair to suggest DA was the only one who made a mistake in the game. It's not like other dudes haven't missed or were marginally late on a rotation before. It sucks it happened in a tight game but to call DA out for a slightly late rotation when we shouldn't even be in that position in the first place is unfair

Well, it sure made Bridges mad. It made Monty mad too. They called out his mistake on TV before me. I'm just showing the play where it happened.

The real problem wasn't that he missed rotation which obviously can happen. The mistake is really a fundamental high school error. DA turned his head away from the ball-handler and pick-roll for a split second. That was why he was late.

Again. Watch the play at 4:40 in the first video. It is obvious. You'll have to slow it down to see his head turn.

Now ask yourself why would Ayton look away for an instant from the strongside to the weakside? It just doesn't make any sense.

Cool story bro. Now go find some videos of Mikal getting ridden like a circus pony vs Luka, Ingram, Middleton, Steph, Bron, Jimmy Butler, etc, etc, etc. There's plenty of evidence of crap Mikal games so have at it.

[dremill24]

Maybe everyone makes mistakes and this one may have just been magnified and pissed people off? Ya'll are like **** children