Game 31: Grizzlies @ Suns (bringing in the New Year!)

[Revived]

Markieff Morris with 1 rebound in 25 minutes of play.

[INFORMER-93]

That game was a reality check to all of the people who don't want to pay Bledsoe or go after Hayward or think PJ tucker at one million is better than Deng at 10 million. Yea, lets keep all of our money and be a lotto team forever!

Come on. I think generally everyone wants to add talent to the team; we just have different ideas on how the Suns go about it. Bledsoe is a really good player, so of course if you take him off the team and don't replace him with anything, the team is going to be worse. That's hardly a revelation.

I'm not sure how an eight point loss to the Grizzlies all of sudden justifies overpaying for Hayward or giving a big contract to an aging, injury prone Luol Deng.

[Blackification]

May be we ought to draft the biggest MOFO we can.

Haha if we wanted the biggest mofo in the nba we would trade for bynum

[INFORMER-93]

Whoever's decision it was to sit Bledsoe out is responsible for tonight's game. If his injury is not serious, no reason to sit him out.

We can't afford to lose games like this. A loss like this without him can effect the rest of the reason as silly as that sounds.

I think Bledsoe doesn't wanna take any risks at all because of it being his contract year. He won't play hurt or play through pain cause it can hurt him in the future.

Can you imagine a guy like Steve Nash or Goran Dragic sitting out of a game if the injury wasn't serious? Hell, they would probably put up a fight to play even if it was a pre season game!

I think we're overreacting. Players that are hurt sit out as a precaution all the time. Let's settle down.

[Blackification]

Goodwin in the doghouse ? Xmas got a few minutes....

We shouldn't overlook how good memphis is/was. ZBo is, IMO, the toughest PF to contain in the league. The dude goes for like 270+... hell his big round head probably weighs 30 pounds.

Good little wake up call to the boys. 'You aint there yet'

Yup well said the last time we lost to memphis we went 10 for 12 in the next 12 games and our competition was much harder than it will be in January. It happens guys the grizzlies are like what we are to the blazers.

The minnesota game will be a problem as well but if our bench comes correct that time and this time we can still match up with our depth.

And bledsoe didn't play because its stupid to risk him getting a bigger injury if he isn't 100%. Its nothing serious doesn't mean it can't lead to more problems if he comes back too early. I trust our medical staff and the decisions of our front office

[SunsRback4Good]

We don't know how severe a players injury is so its easy to call someone out but better be safe then sorry. Its only one game and Bledsoe should be back next game.

[Revived]

On the plus side...we play the Bucks next. Go Suns!

[SiMan]

Damn, such an unnecessary defeat, Dragić's great game goes to waste, and this time noone else stepped up.

[NaturalBuns]

Markieff Morris with 1 rebound in 25 minutes of play.

Thats uncalled for. Even though hes undersized

[Revived]

Grizzlies backup guard Jerryd Bayless led the rally, once again reveling in faring well down the street from his alma mater.

“Some guy on the sideline said that I disgraced St. Mary’s (High School),” Bayless said. “That kind of hurt my feelings. That kind of got me going a little bit.”

Bayless has averaged 8.0 points and shot just 37.5 percent this season but he scored 13 of his 17 points in the Thursday game’s final 14 minutes.

“JB had a homecoming,” Randolph said.

Bayless throughout his career has killed the Suns. Career highs against PHX.

If I'm his agent I would advise him to sign with a team in the Pacific division so he gets more chances to play the Suns. LAL could certainly use a PG...

[Blackification]

moral victory of the night? Miles was number 3 on the nba.com top ten lol.

The commentator said "Frequent Flier miles is on the top ten every night, hes a top ten allstar"

[Sundreamer]

Didn't get to see the game but by he looks of it, the Grizzlies killed us in the paint (as usual). I thought that with Gasol out, this wasn't going to be much of an issue, but oh well.

I don't like it when the Suns lose games like this one because it gives fodder to those claiming we're not a real deal.

Onto the next one.

[Miklo]

Memphis just has our number this season. This is an example of how it doesn't matter what a team's record is against other teams if they know how to outplay you. With the Griz, the paint is the main area where they have us dominated. It actually isn't just one player, but just their physical style inside. Ed Davis, Kosta Koufos, ZBo, MGasol (though injured in both contests thus far), all love them some Suns.

[jcsunsfan]

Might have been somewhat different with Bledsoe, but something tells me he wouldn't have saved it. Thinkin' Eric coulda made it worse.

Because of their style/pace/attack, I'm thinking Memphis games give us some preview of how this Suns team will look should they make the playoffs. So far, the generally more plodding pace of a Memphis Grizzly game doesn't seem to translate well for the Suns. But!!!...We're good! Everything is good this year

I think Bledsoe would have made a huge difference. The team would not have gone backwards as much when Goran was out. Goran would not have had to carry so much of the load and would not have been as gassed at the end. There was a point there where he missed two easy shots and a tech free throw and it was clearly a result of fatigue. Then Eric would have played D on Bayless. Bayless misses one or two shots that were makes, but also our bigs would not have had to cheat out so much on him.

Learned alot about the value of Bledsoe in that loss.

[jcsunsfan]

Whoever's decision it was to sit Bledsoe out is responsible for tonight's game. If his injury is not serious, no reason to sit him out.

We can't afford to lose games like this. A loss like this without him can effect the rest of the reason as silly as that sounds.

I think Bledsoe doesn't wanna take any risks at all because of it being his contract year. He won't play hurt or play through pain cause it can hurt him in the future.

Can you imagine a guy like Steve Nash or Goran Dragic sitting out of a game if the injury wasn't serious? Hell, they would probably put up a fight to play even if it was a pre season game!

I think we're overreacting. Players that are hurt sit out as a precaution all the time. Let's settle down.

Its foolhardy to play on a strained knee. That is a great way to cause much more damage. There are so many examples of this--RG3, Brandon Roy, etc. Roy basically sacrificed his career to play too early in a playoff series against the Suns.

[jcsunsfan]

Didn't get to see the game but by he looks of it, the Grizzlies killed us in the paint (as usual). I thought that with Gasol out, this wasn't going to be much of an issue, but oh well.

I don't like it when the Suns lose games like this one because it gives fodder to those claiming we're not a real deal.

Onto the next one.

Its a little misleading. In the 4th, Bayless' outside game opened up the middle. Also Randolph was scoring from 15-20 at times.

[Revived]

Might have been somewhat different with Bledsoe, but something tells me he wouldn't have saved it. Thinkin' Eric coulda made it worse.

Because of their style/pace/attack, I'm thinking Memphis games give us some preview of how this Suns team will look should they make the playoffs. So far, the generally more plodding pace of a Memphis Grizzly game doesn't seem to translate well for the Suns. But!!!...We're good! Everything is good this year

I think Bledsoe would have made a huge difference. The team would not have gone backwards as much when Goran was out. Goran would not have had to carry so much of the load and would not have been as gassed at the end. There was a point there where he missed two easy shots and a tech free throw and it was clearly a result of fatigue. Then Eric would have played D on Bayless. Bayless misses one or two shots that were makes, but also our bigs would not have had to cheat out so much on him.

Learned alot about the value of Bledsoe in that loss.

Didn't Bledsoe play in the first matchup vs MEM where the Suns got blown out? Or was that one of the games that Dragic missed but Bled played in?

[coban]

http://www.nba.com/suns/#/games/20131203/PHXMEM/gameinfo.html they both played