RealGM

Who: Dallas Mavericks @ Phoenix Suns

When: Thursday, August 13th @ 1:00pm, FSNAZ

Where: AdventHealth Arena, Reunion, FL





Mavs starting lineup:

C- Porzingis

F- Hardaway Jr

F- Finney-Smith

G- Curry

G- Doncic



Reserves: Kleber/Burke/Wright/Jackson/Marjanovic




Suns starting lineup:

C- Ayton

F- Bridges

F- Cam

G- Booker

G- Rubio



Reserves: Saric/Carter/Payne/Kaminsky

No news on Doncic/KP sitting out yet. Once confirmed I'll make the change.

I'm really scared about this one.

I think the Suns handle their business, easy to get motivated by 8-0 regardless of what the ultimate outcome ends up.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using RealGM mobile app

hopefully KP and Doncic sit again out of fear they might get embarassed again by inferior competition.

Without Mr Puddles poetic speech we may final lose our first game. O Puddle, Puddle, wherefore art thou Puddle?

Luka will play.


Mikal Bridges:

Saberestar wrote:

Read on Twitter

Saw Cam rubbing his knee in yesterdays game... Hopefully nothing major... Would be a shame to make the play in etc. and have him out. He is playing a lot of minutes so hopefully just an overuse thing as he gets used to this workload.

El Hespiritu wrote:

Read on Twitter

"only if the bigs get in foul trouble"

Meaning he'll play.

Most likely KP and Curry out and Luka on restricted minutes. Boban as the only C. It shouldn't be too difficult for the Suns.

Bob8 wrote:Most likely KP and Curry out and Luka on restricted minutes. Boban as the only C. It shouldn't be too difficult for the Suns.

Should we be worried about Barea or this isn't 2011?

Ayton should dominate this game. Then again, he should have dominated against Philly too sans Joel.

Bogyo wrote:Ayton should dominate this game. Then again, he should have dominated against Philly too sans Joel.

Ayton has been subpar in the bubble outside of maybe the first game against Washington. Almost all his pts have been spoon-fed open layups for him because of the attention Booker draws and Rubio’s playmaking magic. Without looking at the actual numbers, I would guess 90%+ of his baskets in the bubble after the first game have been assisted or come on offensive rebound putbacks usually with Booker attacking and drawing the big man to him so nobody else is in the paint. Against Philly, he even struggled with this as he dropped many open passes from Booker and Rubio and at one point they even stopped going to him (understandably) even when he was semi open. Can’t blame them, I’m sure they thought Ayton would drop like 40 and 20 with ease considering Philly was without both Embiid and Horford and had no size really in the paint.

Anytime they try to feed him the ball for 1 on 1, he chokes. The entire NBA knows he loves that 15 ft jumper and when you take that away, he has absolutely no skills to post up and create his own shot. I assume every scouting report has caught up to this by now. Even against tiny guards, he sometimes tries a contested fade away jumper like he’s Dirk...defensively, he doesn’t step up on pick and rolls (leading to open jumpers) nor does he protect the rim (leading to open layups). Usually stands and watches hoping for a miss so he can get the board.

I know sounds like I’m super harsh on him but I was really excited with the progress that he made in his games after returning from suspension. But he’s reverted back to rookie Ayton in the bubble especially defensively which has been one of the very few disappointments during our 7-0 run.

I'll be more than happy if they just win this game, no matter what happens with the others. And even if they don't...it's been great.

Prediction time:

Calling it right now with a crystal ball in my hands. Been rubbing the balls for past few hours for good luck. Here is what's going to happen later today. Phoenix will be extremely motivated and finally jump on Dallas early unlike the past two games. Predicting Suns win 121 to 104. Next, the Grizzlies will play for their lives but come up short in the final 4 min of the game. Predicting Bucks victory 111 to 106. Lastly, the Nets will lead by halftime playing great with lead the whole first half but Nurk & Trent Jr will be too much to handle. Predicting Blazers win 128 to 221. The Spurs, well... let's just say Pop retired by halftime allowing Timmy/Becky to run the half.

The Suns will meet the Blazers on Saturday & Sunday for play in games. Suns easily take the first game 114 to 101 & the final game is like a Wild Wild West, both teams exchange leads 23 times and with less than a minute remaining CAM JOHNSON hits the game winning three and Suns hold on to a 108 to 106 win.

The city of Phoenix throws a mini parade for our team and Trump invites the whole team to the White House, but Phoenix declines due to preparation for an exhausting 7 game series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Phoenix meets the Lakers and loses in 5 games but Lebron, AD, & Caruso give us praise for playing like a pretender and claiming next season Suns win over 50+ games.

"Sunderella" becomes so popular that Doris Burke agrees to write and publish the book about our magical season.

The end.

SunsRback4Good wrote:Without Mr Puddles poetic speech we may final lose our first game. O Puddle, Puddle, wherefore art thou Puddle?

Those pesky baby cows are about to crumble before the glorious light radiating from that beacon of basketball prowess that is the mighty Phoenix Suns. A light so bright that it shines a path along the dark treacherous roads of playoff glory. Like a northern star guiding us through the misty rivers of disappointment and hardship that have plagued this storied NBA franchise since the Nash years, towards the unchartered waters of dynasty grandeur.

Your day of reckoning has come, Mavericks. The day when the playoff-bound Phoenix Suns will blow a wind through your little play world, a wind so strong that it will also crush those pesky Blazers and Grizzlies in its path - And we'll be there, in all our glory, feasting our eyes on the destruction, as it all comes crumbling down!

^what he said