NBA PLAYOFFS: GAME 3: Phoenix Suns @ Los Angeles Clippers (Tied 1-1) | Thursday | 7:30 PM

[Revived]

Torrey Craig’s been amazing. He’s the unsung hero. After Booker, he’s had the most impact overall in these 3 games so far.

[Revived]

Craig has really hit some big important 3s for us in this series.

Craig always seems to play better in a contract year it seems! Serious question though, IF we had to choose between giving the MLE to Craig or Okogie knowing what we know of each now and what they typically bring in their roles for us, Which would you prioritize??

Craig. Okogie plays with good effort and has good defense but he’s reckless offensively and his size hurts him and his vision is terrible so he gets offensive rebounds and gets blocked instead of kicking it out to one of his 3-4 open teammates.

Craig has the better size and skill while Okogie has the youth.

[Blonde]

Everyone so doom and gloom like it’s blowout wins or nothing. Playoff wins aren’t easy to come by especially when you go into every series with a coaching disadvantage.

[garrick]

Don't think I've ever been more frustrated after a playoff win.This team doesn't look good enough to win a championship right now.Just don't have the chemistry.CP3 looks washed every other game.Ayton's not it.So far, KD looks like a solid role player.Not what I expected.I guess the Celtics gave every team the blueprint to neutralize KD?Could just be the Clippers physicality.They might be the most physical team in the playoffs.

A role player scoring 27, 25 and 28 on amazing efficiency in playoffs (2W-1L)??? And we aren't even talking about his other all around stats on offense and defense.

Just think for a minute what you have said.

We traded him so he could dominate games, if we wanted a good role player we shouldn’t have done the trade.

[bwgood77]

I just don’t get it, how is Booker end up having to do more work WITH Durant than he did before the trade?

Imagine if your boss gives you 2 extra people to help you with your current workload at the office and doesn’t increase your workload or anything. Yet you’re actually working MORE now and have even MORE stuff to do than you did before getting the 2 helpers.

Does this make sense to anyone here?

He is simply getting much better looks with KD as the #1 defensive focus. So he gets more good looks and is much more efficient. He often took a lot more bad shots before. I didn't like him taking so many shots when others were open. But now he is open and I don't have a problem with him taking a lot of shots.

Paul took way too many though.

He’s not getting better looks though. Even today he maybe had 3 or 4 FGs that were open. Everything else was super contested.

And my point was regarding his minutes too.

As far as minutes go, we simply have no depth. Everyone kept saying we didn't lose depth in the trade, but we started the season with terrible depth once Crowder decided to sit out. Then I know we got TJ back in the trade and I like TJ but he is shell of his old self and isn't nearly the player Cam is.

So we just don't have any reliable bench players. That's why people here discuss who should play a lot I guess (to me it doesn't matter unless you have a hot hand..but they should play D)...but we really only have Book and KD. Hopefully at some point Ayton's comfort level gets better. I posted #s earlier..in Feb he was 70% TS%, 67% FG% and in March when KD started playing (and Mikal was gone) he went to 58% TS% and under 55% shooting. Also from 23 and over 10 boards a game in Feb to 14 and 9.

He hadn't played a game in his career without Mikal. I think he's adjusting probably more to that than playing with KD. Hopefully he gets more comfortable because CP3 is only going to continue to decline.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Everyone so doom and gloom like it’s blowout wins or nothing. Playoff wins aren’t easy to come by especially when you go into every series with a coaching disadvantage.

No doom and gloom here man!
Although I am reasonably concerned with the team's continuing lack of urgency and physicality. Also it is quite concerning that our bench simply isn't at all consistent or reliable (although not that surprising when you consider vet min and buyout options). And most concerning is seeing how much we struggle while fielding the best starters on the floor against a team without either of their stars playing.

Honestly we should of had more control of this game due to sheer talent disparity I'd think. But we haven't because we're still passive at times and not at all dominant yet. The reason this concerns me so is because we all know going forward this doesn't get any easier. Only one of our star players has even played up to their expectations as of yet! Paul hasn't, Durant hasn't really yet either and Ayton has been almost invisible so far. And obviously if we're not at the top of our games, and we play the more competitive/ more talented teams as we advance, we could get bounced again early!

[bwgood77]

Craig has really hit some big important 3s for us in this series.

Craig always seems to play better in a contract year it seems! Serious question though, IF we had to choose between giving the MLE to Craig or Okogie knowing what we know of each now and what they typically bring in their roles for us, Which would you prioritize??

Craig. Okogie plays with good effort and has good defense but he’s reckless offensively and his size hurts him and his vision is terrible so he gets offensive rebounds and gets blocked instead of kicking it out to one of his 3-4 open teammates.

Craig has the better size and skill while Okogie has the youth.

Hopefully we can find someone better, but yeah, Craig, He is fairly consistent, has shot the 3 well all year, solid rebounder, even offensively sometimes, defends well. Okogie had an awesome 5 game streak and I saw him regress back to his 5 year averages. He won't get much more than the minimum, if he gets more at all, unless he has some big playoff game or two. He is the better defender and has flashes of dynamic play or great games..but just flashes outside of those 5 or so games in a row.

[BurningHeart]

Everyone so doom and gloom like it’s blowout wins or nothing. Playoff wins aren’t easy to come by especially when you go into every series with a coaching disadvantage.

Nobody expect cakewalks. But you do expect the team to be good. Especially when you're touted as one of the main contenders.

We're just....not that good. It shows.

[bwgood77]

Everyone so doom and gloom like it’s blowout wins or nothing. Playoff wins aren’t easy to come by especially when you go into every series with a coaching disadvantage.

I think you can be fairly unimpressed with the team overall while not being doom and gloom. I agree, any playoff win is good. They could beat us by 30 in the next one and we could win 2 more games by 5 pts each, and we move on.

Makes me think of an old WCF Blazers series where they beat us by 2 and then by 1 in games 1 and 2. We then won game 3 by 34 and game 4 by 12. It looked like we could win 4 in a row, but lost game 5 by 6 and then came home to lose game 6 by 3. Outscored them in the series by 34.

Impressive wins mean little. Wins are all that matter.

[MrMiyagi]

This series is going 7, isn't it?

[LV-Suns]

The Clippers managed to score 39 points in the 4th quarter with that micro lineup, I expect them to employ similar lineup the next few games. Ayton might be unplayable with how little pressure he was applying.

[sunsbum]

I don't think even the players believe they can achieve anything big this season. If Kawhi misses another game, one more round is likely, but this team gets beat by healthy Nuggets and destroyed by Warriors/Bucks/Celtics.

CP3 is washed. Ayton has regressed quite a bit. The offense is ugly iso hero ball with a lot of TOs. Monty's 0.5 offense doesn't have place with this roster. Probably just better to go for another iso player in Irving and get something for CP3 and Ayton before they retire and leave respectively. Give Kyrie 3y contract, which ends with KD's and once they are gone, hope another star to pair with Booker is available.

Congrats on a terrible take. No one was playing "hero ball" tonight. The defense was intent on keeping the ball out of KDs hands and played really good defense on him. Booker and the suns took what was given to them. Did you not see late in the 4th when they went small and started flash doubling booker the ball started moving around more? Good win, terrible take, where's Ayton? Some say hes still fumbling that entry bounce pass somewhere in the universe.

[Saberestar]

Don't think I've ever been more frustrated after a playoff win.This team doesn't look good enough to win a championship right now.Just don't have the chemistry.CP3 looks washed every other game.Ayton's not it.So far, KD looks like a solid role player.Not what I expected.I guess the Celtics gave every team the blueprint to neutralize KD?Could just be the Clippers physicality.They might be the most physical team in the playoffs.

A role player scoring 27, 25 and 28 on amazing efficiency in playoffs (2W-1L)??? And we aren't even talking about his other all around stats on offense and defense.

Just think for a minute what you have said.

We traded him so he could dominate games, if we wanted a good role player we shouldn’t have done the trade.

KD is not a role player, come on. Book and him are superstars and they playing like that in the playoffs.

[Jdiddy701]

Lol this board is ridiculous. Complaining even in wins.. you guys are embarrassing.


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[Saberestar]

This series is going 7, isn't it?

Norman Powell and Westbrook played out of their minds and thet yet got the L at home.

It's looking more possible for the Suns to end this series in 5.

[Jdiddy701]

This is another game I think the Suns lose without KD. Just having him on the court is a game changer. Booker gets whatever he wants now. Chris Paul and DA played terrible, D Lee hit some shots off the bench, Bizzy active as always, KD sloppy. Booker is a superstar. I remember some of y’all wanted to build this team around DA and not Book. LMAO


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[Saberestar]

Lol this board is ridiculous. Complaining even in wins.. you guys are embarrassing.


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They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

[Jdiddy701]

Lol this board is ridiculous. Complaining even in wins.. you guys are embarrassing.


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They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


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[MrMiyagi]

This series is going 7, isn't it?

Norman Powell and Westbrook played out if their minds and thet yet got the L at home.

It's looking more possible for the Suns to end this series in 5.

True, but Powell could maintain his heater with a Kawhi return Saturday.

[irish22022]

Lol this board is ridiculous. Complaining even in wins.. you guys are embarrassing.


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They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


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Yeah you can pretty much throw a dart at the clippers bench and that guy would be our best bench player. They've got 12 guys and a great coach. This roster of ours desperately needs Cam Payne. I don't know what the hell happened with Ross, but glad DLee got some shine, too.

As for the poster talking about KD being a role player, that's an ice cold take. Not a lot role players draw the entire side of the floor he's on over towards him. Guy is a magnet. And I don't know if you noticed, but at the end of the game, after CP missed TWO free throws, KD went and basically stole the ball from Chris to make sure he'd be the one shooting. That isn't a role player. That's a player who understands how to win.