Game 77: Phoenix Suns (62-14) @ Memphis Grizzlies (54-23) l Friday l 5:00pm l NBATV l BSAZ

[PittsburghSuns]

Memphis had 32 more offensive rebounds than us in 3 games.

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

[Frank Lee]

Let's be honest, as good as we are, we can't win every game. We're not gonna go 16 and 0 in the playoffs. That being said, I don't think the last two games "exposed" anything. We just got beat by the better team. I'm not gonna take more than that from this L

You should take something away from this loss as our lofty record means nothing in a few weeks. After our 1-3 start, all of our losses are to playoff teams (assuming the Pelicans make it).

How many of those games were we outrebonded? I’m betting all of them and quite a few we got slaughtered.

The blue print is in… crash the boards and beat the suns.

[Qwigglez]

Yeah I didn't like the energy from the guys in this one. Going to have to watch a lot of film as the offense looked a bit unbalanced. A loss should help wake the team up though as they appear to be coasting lately.

[pj0tr]

Yeah I didn't like the energy from the guys in this one. Going to have to watch a lot of film as the offense looked a bit unbalanced. A loss should help wake the team up though as they appear to be coasting lately.

Hint: Don't watch any of the film, because you won't recognize the team last night that wore orange jerseys.

And sure - rebounding is always a concern, but the Suns prioritize transition defense, thats why guys don't crash the boards - now Monty may adjust that based on the team they are playing, plus the playoff ball has the pace generally slowed down, so we'll see.

But I'm not worried at all.

[sunsbg]

Actually Grizzlies look like one of the teams we can use Cam J against as a starter at PF. ( @ RDG )

JJJ has always been a pathetic rebounder and Ayton normally should neutralize Adams. The rest is a team effort.

[Qwigglez]

Yeah I didn't like the energy from the guys in this one. Going to have to watch a lot of film as the offense looked a bit unbalanced. A loss should help wake the team up though as they appear to be coasting lately.

Hint: Don't watch any of the film, because you won't recognize the team last night that wore orange jerseys.

And sure - rebounding is always a concern, but the Suns prioritize transition defense, thats why guys don't crash the boards - now Monty may adjust that based on the team they are playing, plus the playoff ball has the pace generally slowed down, so we'll see.

But I'm not worried at all.

I won't watch film the team will.

[PittsburghSuns]

Now there is 3 teams we most likely won’t beat in a series. Bucks Warriors and Grizz

[DroughtsOverPHX]

Memphis had 32 more offensive rebounds than us in 3 games.

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

A rebounding specialist PF rather than stretch would be nice to throw in at times. It feels like a lot of the time it's 4 guys at the 3 point line and Ayton underneath.

[MrMiyagi]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

[RaisingArizona]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

Not sure. This loss meant nothing. My opinions did not change. I said championship or bust.

[Revived]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

To be fair it’s not just one game, Memphis took the season series from the Suns iirc.

But overall yeah I’m not worried. I actually like what bw said earlier, it’s good to have a loss like this to build a sense of caution heading into playoffs instead of feeling too unstoppable. Even a few more before season ends wouldn’t be awful.

Gotta start resting players. Every other team with a top seed locked up is already starting to do it and if one of our main guys get injured in these basically pointless games then it’d just be dumb. All the April reg season games are basically pointless unless it’s a team fighting for playoffs or seeding.

[PittsburghSuns]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

Only if it was that easy that the best Regular season record wins it all everytime. The three teams I mentioned above we do not match up with well. Watch the games against Milwaukee in the finals and this year vs GSW and Memphis. If those teams are Healthy we are not beating any of them 4/7

[pj0tr]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

To be fair it’s not just one game, Memphis took the season series from the Suns iirc.

But overall yeah I’m not worried. I actually like what bw said earlier, it’s good to have a loss like this to build a sense of caution heading into playoffs instead of feeling too unstoppable. Even a few more before season ends wouldn’t be awful.

Gotta start resting players. Every other team with a top seed locked up is already starting to do it and if one of our main guys get injured in these basically pointless games then it’d just be dumb. All the April reg season games are basically pointless unless it’s a team fighting for playoffs or seeding.

Memphis beat Phoenix in the 2nd game on a near buzzer beater from Ja after he traveled, in a game with both Ayton and Crowder missing, and Elfrid Payton playing 10 minutes.

Context matters lol. The Suns wiped Memphis out by 25 in Memphis when both teams were healthy.

[pj0tr]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

Only if it was that easy that the best Regular season record wins it all everytime. The three teams I mentioned above we do not match up with well. Watch the games against Milwaukee in the finals and this year vs GSW and Memphis. If those teams are Healthy we are not beating any of them 4/7

Yeah I watched all of them, and I flat out disagree with you.

Phoenix played Memphis and Golden State a combined 3 games where both teams were near full health.

Phoenix went 2-1 in those games, blowing out Memphis by 25 in Memphis, and went 1-1 vs Golden State, with one of those games being without Booker for a half against the Warriors.

[PittsburghSuns]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

Only if it was that easy that the best Regular season record wins it all everytime. The three teams I mentioned above we do not match up with well. Watch the games against Milwaukee in the finals and this year vs GSW and Memphis. If those teams are Healthy we are not beating any of them 4/7

Yeah I watched all of them, and I flat out disagree with you.

Phoenix played Memphis and Golden State a combined 3 games where both teams were near full health.

Phoenix went 2-1 in those games, blowing out Memphis by 25 in Memphis, and went 1-1 vs Golden State, with one of those games being without Booker for a half against the Warriors.

Well you have to also add in last night and the GSW game recently as well where we got blown out by Memphis 2nd string and almost lost to no Curry Warriors. We can’t guard Giannis or Middleton for that matter. Memphis out rebounds us to the point of where we don’t match up with them because of soft Ayton and no PF. Warriors D us up and have as much if not more talent than us with Poole coming on. I don’t like our odds in any of those matchups.

[Saberestar]

Memphis had 32 more offensive rebounds than us in 3 games.

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

A rebounding specialist PF rather than stretch would be nice to throw in at times. It feels like a lot of the time it's 4 guys at the 3 point line and Ayton underneath.

That would change our system and our halfcourt sets. We play with 4 perimeter players all the time spacing the floor.

If it's a must to win the rebounding battle or for an special matchup we can play Biyombo next to Ayton. Monty has done it already a few times.

[Puff]

Memphis had 32 more offensive rebounds than us in 3 games.

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

A rebounding specialist PF rather than stretch would be nice to throw in at times. It feels like a lot of the time it's 4 guys at the 3 point line and Ayton underneath.

I agree with it being this team's biggest weakness. Why doesn't Monty insert Dikembe alongside either Ayton or McGee? It seems like we are more concerned with getting back on defense and spreading the court with three point shooters than securing the rebound. In the off season one of our priorities should be to find a way to fix this issue.

We had:
2 ORBD's
17 TO's

Memphis had:
16 ORBD's
11 TO's

Due to that we took only 86 shots compared to Memphis at 102. I do not know how important shot attempts are at determining the winner of games, I expect it helps a bunch to have the disparity that Memphis had over us last night. It really is amazing that we were leading after three quarters. We crapped the bed in the 4th quarter, that is the reason we lost.

Cam Johnson looked awful last night. I sure hope he works his way back to where he was prior to the injury he had. We need him.

[RunDogGun]

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

A rebounding specialist PF rather than stretch would be nice to throw in at times. It feels like a lot of the time it's 4 guys at the 3 point line and Ayton underneath.

That would change our system and our halfcourt sets. We play with 4 perimeter players all the time spacing the floor.

If it's a must to win the rebounding battle or for an special matchup we can play Biyombo next to Ayton. Monty has done it already a few times.

Its tough to stick to the 4 out one in when we struggle shooting. Teams that really can get out on the shooters and are long and athletic, we have a tough time with. I think we could still have transition defense focus, while having at least one guy crashing the boards at all times. But one of our biggest weaknesses has been giving up offensive rebounds.

(Not related to your comment Saber) : Six games to go in the regular season, and we look this bad in two games back to back, should be a concern. Momentum is more important going into the playoffs than the number of regular season wins. Anyone following or playing sports knows this.

[bwgood77]

I love how we lose 1 game and everyone forgets the 62 we've won, and assumes that we can't beat a team 4 times in 7 attempts with home court advantage...

Yeah, the Grizz are very tough and play hard every night, but last night's loss doesn't change how I feel about it in the least. We are 9-1 in our last 10.

We lost to the Hawks by like 30 in one of the last few games last year.

Chances are we don't win the finals, but you could say that about any team against the field. Our chances are as good as the Grizzlies.

Also, the Warriors are a very good rebounding team. Before Green went down, the Warriors were the #1 rebounding team, but now they are a little lower around where we are at a little over 45 reb per game while the Grizzlies avg 49.

[bwgood77]

That is this teams biggest weakness and there is no fixing it with this roster.

A rebounding specialist PF rather than stretch would be nice to throw in at times. It feels like a lot of the time it's 4 guys at the 3 point line and Ayton underneath.

I agree with it being this team's biggest weakness. Why doesn't Monty insert Dikembe alongside either Ayton or McGee? It seems like we are more concerned with getting back on defense and spreading the court with three point shooters than securing the rebound. In the off season one of our priorities should be to find a way to fix this issue.

We had:
2 ORBD's
17 TO's

Memphis had:
16 ORBD's
11 TO's

Due to that we took only 86 shots compared to Memphis at 102. I do not know how important shot attempts are at determining the winner of games, I expect it helps a bunch to have the disparity that Memphis had over us last night. It really is amazing that we were leading after three quarters. We crapped the bed in the 4th quarter, that is the reason we lost.

Cam Johnson looked awful last night. I sure hope he works his way back to where he was prior to the injury he had. We need him.

Obviously shot attempts matters unless it is because you shot more free throws than them (enough to make up the difference). That wasn't the case.

We usually don't turn it over as much, but we also usually shoot much better at free throws, and Cam shoots better. Even with that discrepancy in shots, we lost by 8.

16 more shots and the game was separated by 4 baskets (or less than 3 3s).

I think we also went in a little overconfident when we saw 80% of their starters resting and their top reserve PG.