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Who: Phoenix Suns @ Golden State Warriors

When: Friday, December 3rd @ 8:00pm (10:00ET), ESPN

Where: Chase Center, San Francisco, CA








Phoenix Suns starting lineup:


C- Ayton

F- Crowder

F- Bridges

G- CamJ

G- CP3


Reserves: Mcgee/Payne/Shamet/Nader





Golden State Warriors starting lineup:


C- Looney

F- Green

F- Wiggins

G- Poole

G- Curry



Reserves: Toscano-Anderson/Porter/Chiozza/Payton ll/Bjelica


Good luck charm!!!

If noone gets injured I'm happy. If we play good ball I'm happier. In the unlikely case we win this on the 2nd night of a B2B without Book, and keep our streak going - I'm popping a bottle.

Bogyo wrote:If noone gets injured I'm happy. If we play good ball I'm happier. In the unlikely case we win this on the 2nd night of a B2B without Book, and keep our streak going - I'm popping a bottle.

Very nice, but my preference is popping a molly if we manage to eke out a win. Regardless, win or lose I'm popping something after the game. Go Suns!

I don't feel good about tonight. I think we exhausted a ton last night to get that win. If we weren't on this streak, I could even see Monty sitting Paul or giving the guy's less minutes. It's eventually going to be a drain on them.

2nd night of a back-to-back and no Booker. Already broke the franchise record for winning streak. Team may be mentally exhausted to keep doing it and while you can get away with letting up a bit against a team like Detroit, you can't against a very motivated-to-stop-the-streak Warriors group.

If we win, someone please quote this so I can feel bad about my lack of faith and beg for forgiveness

King4Day wrote:I don't feel good about tonight. I think we exhausted a ton last night to get that win. If we weren't on this streak, I could even see Monty sitting Paul or giving the guy's less minutes. It's eventually going to be a drain on them.

2nd night of a back-to-back and no Booker. Already broke the franchise record for winning streak. Team may be mentally exhausted to keep doing it and while you can get away with letting up a bit against a team like Detroit, you can't against a very motivated-to-stop-the-streak Warriors group.

If we win, someone please quote this so I can feel bad about my lack of faith and beg for forgiveness

I don't think you are wrong to think this could be a tough night

Curry is not going to shoot 4 for 21 again. More likely is 14 for 21. He is just that good

TEam has won a lot of games; back to back. If its a blow out, so be it - the bench will get a lot of run. Tonight doesn't make or break the Suns if they lose. Neither did Tuesday but the Tuesday home game - nice to beat the Warriors without BOok for 2+ quarters. These two teams are probably going to be 1 and 2 in the WC.

If I were betting on this game - I take the the Warriors minus the 7.5

King4Day wrote:I don't feel good about tonight. I think we exhausted a ton last night to get that win. If we weren't on this streak, I could even see Monty sitting Paul or giving the guy's less minutes. It's eventually going to be a drain on them.

2nd night of a back-to-back and no Booker. Already broke the franchise record for winning streak. Team may be mentally exhausted to keep doing it and while you can get away with letting up a bit against a team like Detroit, you can't against a very motivated-to-stop-the-streak Warriors group.

If we win, someone please quote this so I can feel bad about my lack of faith and beg for forgiveness

All your logic is sound and it wouldn't surprise me if they lost tonight. And if they do no big deal.

Reason for hope would be this is a very professional group who will give good effort. Could be a night that you make it a point to feed Ayton and see if he can get on a roll and go for 30+. I also expect guys like Payne and Johnson to look to score more with additional touches available with Booker out.

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WeekapaugGroove wrote:

King4Day wrote:I don't feel good about tonight. I think we exhausted a ton last night to get that win. If we weren't on this streak, I could even see Monty sitting Paul or giving the guy's less minutes. It's eventually going to be a drain on them.

2nd night of a back-to-back and no Booker. Already broke the franchise record for winning streak. Team may be mentally exhausted to keep doing it and while you can get away with letting up a bit against a team like Detroit, you can't against a very motivated-to-stop-the-streak Warriors group.

If we win, someone please quote this so I can feel bad about my lack of faith and beg for forgiveness

All your logic is sound and it wouldn't surprise me if they lost tonight. And if they do no big deal.

Reason for hope would be this is a very professional group who will give good effort. Could be a night that you make it a point to feed Ayton and see if he can get on a roll and go for 30+. I also expect guys like Payne and Johnson to look to score more with additional touches available with Booker out.

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Tonight isn't a big deal. I think the win on Tuesday showed the Suns players - they can beat the WArriors - even without Booker. Maybe losing Tuesday and losing tonight could create a mental hurdle. But they won Tuesday, its a back to back - just play smart, play hard and if the WArriors are winning by 30 going into the 4th - hello Smith, Chandler and Wainright!

So many idiots are gonna celebrate as if they won the title if the Suns lose tonight despite being without Booker and being on the road and being on 2nd night of a back to back.

If Bridges didn’t play 42 mins last night I’d feel much better considering he’s gonna have to run around and try to defend Curry tonight.

Warriors gameplan tonight will be get Shamet switched on to Curry or have whoever he’s guarding be the one to make plays. Shamet’s defense is gonna be the X factor tonight cause they are coming for him.

WeekapaugGroove wrote:

King4Day wrote:I don't feel good about tonight. I think we exhausted a ton last night to get that win. If we weren't on this streak, I could even see Monty sitting Paul or giving the guy's less minutes. It's eventually going to be a drain on them.

2nd night of a back-to-back and no Booker. Already broke the franchise record for winning streak. Team may be mentally exhausted to keep doing it and while you can get away with letting up a bit against a team like Detroit, you can't against a very motivated-to-stop-the-streak Warriors group.

If we win, someone please quote this so I can feel bad about my lack of faith and beg for forgiveness

All your logic is sound and it wouldn't surprise me if they lost tonight. And if they do no big deal.

Reason for hope would be this is a very professional group who will give good effort. Could be a night that you make it a point to feed Ayton and see if he can get on a roll and go for 30+. I also expect guys like Payne and Johnson to look to score more with additional touches available with Booker out.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

I think you are spot on. This game will come down to how hard Ayton plays, and the play of the Cams.

The only good thing about Booker being out is that is one less guy who constantly plays hero ball. The other day someone posted the game between LA and PHX, where Kobe was constantly playing hero ball and taking bad shots and forcing issues. It is scary how similar Booker is to Kobe in that regards. I love having Book on the team, and hope he returns quickly, but I also hope he realizes how much better the team plays when he is not trying to be the hero.

Revived wrote:So many idiots are gonna celebrate as if they won the title if the Suns lose tonight despite being without Booker and being on the road and being on 2nd night of a back to back.

If Bridges didn’t play 42 mins last night I’d feel much better considering he’s gonna have to run around and try to defend Curry tonight.

Warriors gameplan tonight will be get Shamet switched on to Curry or have whoever he’s guarding be the one to make plays. Shamet’s defense is gonna be the X factor tonight cause they are coming for him.

Shamet hustles, but definitely has issues on the defensive side. This was one of my main concerns with playing him many minutes. The opposing team will target him. But when he is shooting well, does his offense outweigh his defensive limitations? He seems quick enough to get into good positions to take charges, but that will not be enough against the Warriors. Even though Payton is not a good shooter, I would like to see more of him tonight. If we are playing solid team ball on both ends of the court, I think we have a chance to keep this streak going.

OUR TEAM DOESNT KNOW THE WORD QUIT ANYMORE.

BOOKER BEING OUT MEANS NOTHING.

THE REST OF THE GUYS KNOW WHAT TO DO.

19 WINSTREAK INCOMING!

SlovenianDragon wrote:OUR TEAM DOESNT KNOW THE WORD QUIT ANYMORE.

BOOKER BEING OUT MEANS NOTHING.

THE REST OF THE GUYS KNOW WHAT TO DO.

19 WINSTREAK INCOMING!

Yep. We do have a badass team and finally after tonight there will be a bunch more acknowledging it. We beat the best team in the league twice in 4 nights, 2nd half of a back to back and on their home floor without our leading scorer. I can't wait to hear how some will minimize that accomplishment.

I'm not worried about the minutes played last night. It's still just December, mikals conditioning is through the roof. CP will have a huge game today and I think we'll see a lot of Cam Payne minutes, maybe 36-38. He's more tenacious on defense than shamet and if shamet isn't hitting shots he just doesn't give us enough.

If we win, it will be because we shoot from a very high clip from 3. I look for crowder to have a huge shooting night. This is where he thrives.

Oh man how sweet would a W be tonight. Listening to the talking heads flailing around trying to, for the second time in a week, explain it away as the Warriors are still better would be so satisfying.

I think getting the W tonight will be extremely difficult though. I'm not too worried about the minutes guys played last night. Bridges is a young stallion, I don't think he'll be tired. Paul played a lot but wasn't really exerting himself too much. The things that concern me are:

--Dubs have had 3 days to review the film and gameplan for us. I think they'll figure out some way to limit Ayton in the paint and it'll be tough for us to overcome that on O without Book. On D you have to assume Curry will have a better game, though you might also assume that Poole and Porter won't be as good. They'll figure something out to get Curry loose more than he was on Tuesday though

--More minutes for Payton. He is great for a 3rd string PG and is a very good passer and driver, but there's a really big drop off from CP3/Payne to him running the O in regards to the quality of our offensive possessions. It would be nice if we still had Craig to slot JamJo and Bridges down, or even having AbomiNader available would be nice in case he could wind back the clock a bit and be productive on the floor again

--You know the Dubs are pissed deep down in their hearts and want to embarrass us on their homecourt. We'll need to play a near perfect game to win this one

I won't be worried about the team if we we lose but thinking about all the smug media faces slobbering all over the Dubs after the game if we lose is already raising my blood pressure. Let's go Suns!!!

Jesus_H_Macy wrote:Oh man how sweet would a W be tonight. Listening to the talking heads flailing around trying to, for the second time in a week, explain it away as the Warriors are still better would be so satisfying.

I think getting the W tonight will be extremely difficult though. I'm not too worried about the minutes guys played last night. Bridges is a young stallion, I don't think he'll be tired. Paul played a lot but wasn't really exerting himself too much. The things that concern me are:

--Dubs have had 3 days to review the film and gameplan for us. I think they'll figure out some way to limit Ayton in the paint and it'll be tough for us to overcome that on O without Book. On D you have to assume Curry will have a better game, though you might also assume that Poole and Porter won't be as good. They'll figure something out to get Curry loose more than he was on Tuesday though

--More minutes for Payton. He is great for a 3rd string PG and is a very good passer and driver, but there's a really big drop off from CP3/Payne to him running the O in regards to the quality of our offensive possessions. It would be nice if we still had Craig to slot JamJo and Bridges down, or even having AbomiNader available would be nice in case he could wind back the clock a bit and be productive on the floor again

--You know the Dubs are pissed deep down in their hearts and want to embarrass us on their homecourt. We'll need to play a near perfect game to win this one

I won't be worried about the team if we we lose but thinking about all the smug media faces slobbering all over the Dubs after the game if we lose is already raising my blood pressure. Let's go Suns!!!

We can't play Payton much. It kills us. He has such awful efficiency it hurts. TS% of 48%. He can't shoot AT ALL. He' only taken one 3 so no one will guard him out there and will just double someone else, usually crowding the middle to avoid an easy basket from a big and/or defend his drive. So when he DOES drive he almost always runs into 2 defenders and misses. He is under 39% from 3 to 10 ft and can't shoot beyond that. Almost every single one of his shots has been in the paint, yet he can't even make them in there.

All he can do is hope to get to the rim, which he has successfully finished 8 times out of 12 tries this year.

Look at his shot chart. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/paytoel01/shooting/2022

bwgood77 wrote:

Jesus_H_Macy wrote:Oh man how sweet would a W be tonight. Listening to the talking heads flailing around trying to, for the second time in a week, explain it away as the Warriors are still better would be so satisfying.

I think getting the W tonight will be extremely difficult though. I'm not too worried about the minutes guys played last night. Bridges is a young stallion, I don't think he'll be tired. Paul played a lot but wasn't really exerting himself too much. The things that concern me are:

--Dubs have had 3 days to review the film and gameplan for us. I think they'll figure out some way to limit Ayton in the paint and it'll be tough for us to overcome that on O without Book. On D you have to assume Curry will have a better game, though you might also assume that Poole and Porter won't be as good. They'll figure something out to get Curry loose more than he was on Tuesday though

--More minutes for Payton. He is great for a 3rd string PG and is a very good passer and driver, but there's a really big drop off from CP3/Payne to him running the O in regards to the quality of our offensive possessions. It would be nice if we still had Craig to slot JamJo and Bridges down, or even having AbomiNader available would be nice in case he could wind back the clock a bit and be productive on the floor again

--You know the Dubs are pissed deep down in their hearts and want to embarrass us on their homecourt. We'll need to play a near perfect game to win this one

I won't be worried about the team if we we lose but thinking about all the smug media faces slobbering all over the Dubs after the game if we lose is already raising my blood pressure. Let's go Suns!!!

We can't play Payton much. It kills us. He has such awful efficiency it hurts. TS% of 48%. He can't shoot AT ALL. He' only taken one 3 so no one will guard him out there and will just double someone else, usually crowding the middle to avoid an easy basket from a big and/or defend his drive. So when he DOES drive he almost always runs into 2 defenders and misses. He is under 39% from 3 to 10 ft and can't shoot beyond that. Almost every single one of his shots has been in the paint, yet he can't even make them in there.

All he can do is hope to get to the rim, which he has successfully finished 8 times out of 12 tries this year.

Look at his shot chart. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/paytoel01/shooting/2022

Ya he's got a really odd game where he's great at passing and at driving to the rim, but terrible at every other thing on O, including not being great at finishing at the rim once he gets there which makes that skill less valuable. Maybe Wainwright will get more burn? He didn't get enough time for me to form any sort of opinion on him one way or the other besides he didn't do anything bad. Think he had a nice pass IIRC? Our bench is weird this year. It's simultaneously better and deeper but worse and less deep than last season if that makes any sense . Much stronger at backup 2, stronger at 3rd string 1, stronger at backup 5 (though Dario was a net positive). Much weaker at backup 3/4, and even though Galloway, Moore, and Carter weren't PGs I still think I'd feel better about them getting minutes than Payton as long as we also have CP/Book/Shamet on the floor. Payton's value is having an actual PG if CP or Payne get hurt, which is useful, but that's about it.

Payton does have a weird game. I don't like seeing him on the floor which feels strange to say about someone with 17 career triple doubles. I have a feeling he will get serious burn so we better hope it's one of his ON nights.

Wish the last game was at GS while this game at home would have benefited us more especially without Booker playing at home. I'm nervous the streak may end but as long as the team fights and plays hard I'll be happy.

DroughtsOverPHX wrote:Payton does have a weird game. I don't like seeing him on the floor which feels strange to say about someone with 17 career triple doubles. I have a feeling he will get serious burn so we better hope it's one of his ON nights.

I think triple doubles can be awfully overrated. Especially if you can't shoot. And if he has really only had 17 in 8 years that isn't THAT many. He's a fairly solid passer and rebounder who can't shoot. He has played lots of minutes on mostly bad teams.