SunsRback4Good wrote:
Suns had 2 days to watch how the Raptors of 19 and Heat of 20 swarmed the paint making it difficult for Giannis to score at will. Should we follow that recipe or just allow him to score 40+ like in game 2 while slowing down every other player on their team? I prefer what worked in game 2 allow him to feast while stopping everyone else. We could always make necessary adjustments by halftime and go the first route if needed. We cannot afford to lose Ayton due to foul trouble again as without him the dominoes fall.
I think people overvalue Ayton's foul trouble in the third game.
Ayton did not have any problem with fouls until the last few seconds of the first half (IIRC he committed his third with just 10 seconds left) and we were losing by 15 at halftime. He played his usual minutes in the first half and we were behind in the scoreboard by 15 points already.
Yeah, his absence in the third quarter did not help at all, but we were already in a deep hole.
I think that Book and Mikal's bad games were the key on that loss over Ayton's fouls.