Game 24: San Antonio Spurs (8-13) @ Phoenix Suns (19-4) l Monday l 7:00pm l BSAZ

[Jarlaxle0204]

CP3 supposedly hurt his knee in the last 5 seconds before the timeout...

I saw him rubbing it during the timeout. Hopefully he's ok.

[King4Day]

They're right. I have no idea why Chris isn't getting MVP love. He should be 100%

All numbers. Otherwise he would have won last season. Or should have been closer to the top at least. Media thinks numbers are sexy. Nash won because of the same things Paul is doing right now.

It's what bothered me about Monty not winning Coach of the year last season. Either it's because of Paul or because of Monty. If you aren't picking one, you have to pick the other. So dumb

[pj0tr]

CP3 supposedly hurt his knee in the last 5 seconds before the timeout...

any more updates on this?

You could see him rubbing it during the time out. He was rubbing the kneecap like he banged knees with one of the two Spurs defenders trapping him.

Thats what it looked like to me, you just get worried with the amount of injuries we've had so far this year.

CP3 didnt bring it up in postgame.

[spanishninja]

any more updates on this?

You could see him rubbing it during the time out. He was rubbing the kneecap like he banged knees with one of the two Spurs defenders trapping him.

Thats what it looked like to me, you just get worried with the amount of injuries we've had so far this year.

CP3 didnt bring it up in postgame.

well, at least he did the interview post-game, which is hopefully a sign that it wasn't a serious injury.

[RunDogGun]

That Cam Johnson assist should be play of the day stuff

He is not the most athletic guy we have, but damn, he makes some amazing plays sometimes. That pass was sick, and he realized in seconds that it had to be a bounce pass to even get to DA.

[TheLoon]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

[spanishninja]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

yeah, a stark contrast to the first warriors game when he was catching basically everything and didn't get stripped hardly at all. Last night it seemed every time we tried to pass it down to him it was a turnover.

[bhawk]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

yeah, a stark contrast to the first warriors game when he was catching basically everything and didn't get stripped hardly at all. Last night it seemed every time we tried to pass it down to him it was a turnover.

When players make the same mistakes over and over, is it fair to assume they don't care? Maybe Ayton isn't practicing this seemingly simple skill? He almost cost us the game last night and is mister happy go lucky.

He is so hard to watch sometimes. Did you see him pass out to Crowder when he had the easy lay in last night? Dunk that **** Ayton! As soon as that Crowder shot goes up, he starts backpedaling and celebrating BEFORE it goes in! Hit the boards DA! You are a 7 foot center and if Crowder were to miss that, you were already at the FT line with no chance of an offensive rebound. He is so soft.

[pj0tr]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

Warriors made an adjustment in the 2nd game, and Spurs did something similar last night, when Ayton is about to catch, his on-ball defender immediately bodies him, and another defender IMMEDIATELY runs to him.

Ayton has a tendency to put the ball down and dribble at least once before he makes his move - I'm sure both Monty and Bryant saw that, and thats going to be a point of emphasis this week.

Keep in mind Ayton is also being more aggressive this year, than he was last year, so some turnovers are going to happen.

I'm not too worried about it yet. Ayton being able to handle the ball, and make quick decisions is going to help immensely in April, May, and June.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

Warriors made an adjustment in the 2nd game, and Spurs did something similar last night, when Ayton is about to catch, his on-ball defender immediately bodies him, and another defender IMMEDIATELY runs to him.

Ayton has a tendency to put the ball down and dribble at least once before he makes his move - I'm sure both Monty and Bryant saw that, and thats going to be a point of emphasis this week.

Keep in mind Ayton is also being more aggressive this year, than he was last year, so some turnovers are going to happen.

I'm not too worried about it yet. Ayton being able to handle the ball, and make quick decisions is going to help immensely in April, May, and June.

Ayton does not have bad hands, at least not when you compare him to other NBA bigs. But pjOtr hits on a bad habit he does have in bringing the ball down after a rebound and before he makes a move. It negates his size advantage and is something he needs to clean up.

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[bwgood77]

Not a pretty game but a W nonetheless. Need Booker back soon though or else we are probably going to start losing some of these type games. We have little room for error if we want to try and compete for the 1 seed vs the Warriors. That team just doesn’t lose.

I expect Booker to be back Friday.

[bwgood77]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

He's done well mostly this season. Only had two total turnovers in the previous 3 games with far more touches. It was one of his worst turnover games and easily his worst this season but we've had other players have high turnover games too.

It's not like JaVale who has double the turnovers per game this season on half the minutes, or did going into last game, but now he is slightly less than double in half the minutes per game.

It was disappointing though.

[lilfishi22]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

He's done well mostly this season. Only had two total turnovers in the previous 3 games with far more touches. It was one of his worst turnover games and easily his worst this season but we've had other players have high turnover games too.

It's not like JaVale who has double the turnovers per game this season on half the minutes, or did going into last game, but now he is slightly less than double in half the minutes per game.

It was disappointing though.

McGee does a lot more with the ball, whether Monty likes it or not. Majority of his turnovers are quite different to Ayton's rookie mistake turnovers. McGee TO's are more from questionable over dribbling of the ball to get a better shot or to just move the defense. There is intent in what he does and sometimes it results in turnovers. That's also part of his experience having been in the NBA for 14 years and learning to dribble, learning to read the defense better and just learning to be a better basketball player.

I don't think Ayton has bad hands in general but a lot of his turnovers are from bad hands and rookie mistakes (keeping the ball low) and I hope he grows out of it

[bwgood77]

Can we talk about Ayton's hands or lack thereof for a second? I'm so sick of him always losing the ball in traffic or muffing passes...it was so bad in this game I was getting audibly upset...it's so damn frustrating...dude holds the ball like it's a baby bird and he's afraid he's going to hurt it

He's done well mostly this season. Only had two total turnovers in the previous 3 games with far more touches. It was one of his worst turnover games and easily his worst this season but we've had other players have high turnover games too.

It's not like JaVale who has double the turnovers per game this season on half the minutes, or did going into last game, but now he is slightly less than double in half the minutes per game.

It was disappointing though.

McGee does a lot more with the ball, whether Monty likes it or not. Majority of his turnovers are quite different to Ayton's rookie mistake turnovers. McGee TO's are more from questionable over dribbling of the ball to get a better shot or to just move the defense. There is intent in what he does and sometimes it results in turnovers. That's also part of his experience having been in the NBA for 14 years and learning to dribble, learning to read the defense better and just learning to be a better basketball player.

I don't think Ayton has bad hands in general but a lot of his turnovers are from bad hands and rookie mistakes (keeping the ball low) and I hope he grows out of it

Or learning that he shouldn't dribble. He's just way too clumsy to try that. And lets face it, he isn't nearly as heavily guarded as Ayton. He's just not the threat..teams know his limitations and clumsiness, which is why he is a near minimum guy. He actually leads the league in turnovers per 36 for Cs.

He's a great bench vet but you don't want him in there turning it over too much.

Anyway, Ayton averages 1.8 turnovers a game, up from 1.6 before that game. So in his worst TO game ever he increases a bit, and his volume of touches has been much higher the last 4 games. And he has had 7 turnovers in those 4 games including those 5 from last night.

He needs to catch them but it's not a huge concern unless a game like that happens often. People have talked about him not catching balls before but he's never really turned it over a lot. There are a lot of Cs who turn it over a lot more...over 20. A number of them handle the ball more but not that many...only about 5 of them.

It would be awesome if he averaged near zero turnovers and dunked it every time he was close to the rim but neither of those things are likely to happen.

[garrick]

I think Ayton just has a hard time elevating with his hands up so he tends to put his arms down to gather and gain more explosion which often leads to turnovers.

This is probably the reason he lays the ball in instead of dunking and he just isn't a very explosive leaper from a standstill unlike McGee who has more length and explosiveness.

I do think it's a good thing he's trying to create more with us not really expecting him to create his own offense, remember that he is still very young & is not even close to his prime yet.

[MrMiyagi]

I think Ayton just has a hard time elevating with his hands up so he tends to put his arms down to gather and gain more explosion which often leads to turnovers.

This is probably the reason he lays the ball in instead of dunking and he just isn't a very explosive leaper from a standstill unlike McGee who has more length and explosiveness.

I do think it's a good thing he's trying to create more with us not really expecting him to create his own offense, remember that he is still very young & is not even close to his prime yet.

You might be right. He also might not be confident elevating in a crowd, which I don't blame him for. I think people took his quote about wanting that 2nd contract when he was drafted the wrong way. I think Ayton wants to play in the NBA for a long time, which is why he doesn't dunk everything.

You'd think that the fanbase that watched Amar'e deteriorate would understand that.

[PittsburghSuns]

Not a pretty game but a W nonetheless. Need Booker back soon though or else we are probably going to start losing some of these type games. We have little room for error if we want to try and compete for the 1 seed vs the Warriors. That team just doesn’t lose.

I expect Booker to be back Friday.

That would be very nice hopefully we can get that confirmed soon