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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE PREVIEW












Who: Phoenix Suns @ Memphis Grizzlies

When: Friday, April 1st @ 5:00pm (7:00ET) l NBATV l BSAZ

Where: FedEx Forum, Memphis, TN







Phoenix Suns starting lineup::


C- Ayton

F- Crowder

F- Bridges

G- Booker

G- CP3



Reserves: Payne/Shamet/Biyombo/Holiday








Memphis Grizzlies starting lineup:


C- Adams

F- Jackson

F- Brooks

G- Bane

G- Jones


Reserves: Clarke/Anderson/Melton/Williams

Suns need a statement win like they had over Miami...win by 20...get the franchise record...improve the all time road record...say even Ja won't help you

Would love to see another W here even though we don't need it. Hopefully Cam-Daddy is back in action.

let's try harder this time...BOOK.

So what is Crowder's tech counter this season? I don't see any Memphis players he would get tangled up with, but Crowder can get a tech guarding anyone, or on any play. I don't see another stinker shooting night from Book and Ayton, but hopefully Cam is back and is in a somewhat rhythm. It really sucked that he didn't get to ride that killer game against NY. 9-12 from three was insane, but his 3 pt % has been great all season, and we really need that for spacing. I was hoping Holiday would get some minutes and shots from three last night, since we didn't shoot well from three last night.

This would be a good win to get the Suns best all time regular season record. I said it last night, but the Suns always struggle against those pesky combo guards, and the Grizzlies have two in Brooks and Banes.

Tyus Jones has started the last 6 games and is averaging 14 points, 7 assists on 50% shooting from 3. Banes is shooting 43% from 3 all year too. And then you have Melton coming off the bench the last 6 games putting up 20 points while shooting a staggering 58% from the field and 58% from 3 on 8.5 attempts per game. I hope we see more of Holiday this game to help lock some of these guys up.

Qwigglez wrote:This would be a good win to get the Suns best all time regular season record. I said it last night, but the Suns always struggle against those pesky combo guards, and the Grizzlies have two in Brooks and Banes.

Tyus Jones has started the last 6 games and is averaging 14 points, 7 assists on 50% shooting from 3. Banes is shooting 43% from 3 all year too. And then you have Melton coming off the bench the last 6 games putting up 20 points while shooting a staggering 58% from the field and 58% from 3 on 8.5 attempts per game. I hope we see more of Holiday this game to help lock some of these guys up.

And we need Holiday's threes as well.

The issue with Grizzlies is actually not Ja... but Bane and Brooks.

Brooks has a chip on his shoulders when faces Booker. He steps it up a lot. Bane is just a dead eye shooter, pretty much a Brogdon replica. I would actually get Mikal on him and have Booker go to Brooks.

thamadkant wrote:The issue with Grizzlies is actually not Ja... but Bane and Brooks.

Brooks has a chip on his shoulders when faces Booker. He steps it up a lot. Bane is just a dead eye shooter, pretty much a Brogdon replica. I would actually get Mikal on him and have Booker go to Brooks.

Don't forget about Melton. I think he should have a chip on his shoulder as well.

?s=21

Qwigglez wrote:

thamadkant wrote:The issue with Grizzlies is actually not Ja... but Bane and Brooks.

Brooks has a chip on his shoulders when faces Booker. He steps it up a lot. Bane is just a dead eye shooter, pretty much a Brogdon replica. I would actually get Mikal on him and have Booker go to Brooks.

Don't forget about Melton. I think he should have a chip on his shoulder as well.

Read on Twitter

?s=21

Ah those were the days.

?s=20&t=Q28a-eeyAg09lvlZJsxyJg

matt131 wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=Q28a-eeyAg09lvlZJsxyJg

They are obviously treating it as a rest game. All those guys under doubtful have been playing.

They are still deep enough to put a decent team on the floor though...most of their second unit and Brooks.

Melton, Brooks, Anderson, Clarke, Tillman

That poll shows why Ja shouldn't be in any conversation for MVP (he sometime has ranked higher than Book on MVP ladder)....also will mention my weekly (sometimes semi weekly) plug for Tyus Jones.

matt131 wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=Q28a-eeyAg09lvlZJsxyJg

Interesting from the Grizzlies, but it makes sense, they are locked into the 2 seed at this point barring something catastrophic. Though I would think they'd want one last regular season test against a likely WCF opponent.

I'm curious to see when the Suns start to rest players, particularly because we have a few guys (Cam and Paul) who missed some serious time and need to get their rhythm back.

Barkley6 wrote:

matt131 wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=Q28a-eeyAg09lvlZJsxyJg

Interesting from the Grizzlies, but it makes sense, they are locked into the 2 seed at this point barring something catastrophic. Though I would think they'd want one last regular season test against a likely WCF opponent.

I'm curious to see when the Suns start to rest players, particularly because we have a few guys (Cam and Paul) who missed some serious time and need to get their rhythm back.

It looks like they don't wanna show us anything in case we meet in the playoffs. That's weird though, figured they'd want this game as much as our guys do. If they win I *think* they'd be the only team with a positive winning record (2-1 if they beat us).

That's a pretty good thing to have for a young team. Especially one as intense and cocky as Memphis. I was looking forward to this game dammit lol.

Slim Charless wrote:

Barkley6 wrote:

matt131 wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=Q28a-eeyAg09lvlZJsxyJg

Interesting from the Grizzlies, but it makes sense, they are locked into the 2 seed at this point barring something catastrophic. Though I would think they'd want one last regular season test against a likely WCF opponent.

I'm curious to see when the Suns start to rest players, particularly because we have a few guys (Cam and Paul) who missed some serious time and need to get their rhythm back.

It looks like they don't wanna show us anything in case we meet in the playoffs. That's weird though, figured they'd want this game as much as our guys do. If they win I *think* they'd be the only team with a positive winning record (2-1 if they beat us).

That's a pretty good thing to have for a young team. Especially one as intense and cocky as Memphis. I was looking forward to this game dammit lol.

I went through (not here, but for my own curiosity) this the other day before the GSW game - GSW is the only team that beat us 2x this year (we split 2-2) and Memphis has the chance to win the season series. The rest of our schedule and splits looks like this:

OKC 3-0
LAL 3-0
LAC 2-1
UTA 2-1
SAC 2-1

cberry78 wrote:

Slim Charless wrote:

Barkley6 wrote:
Interesting from the Grizzlies, but it makes sense, they are locked into the 2 seed at this point barring something catastrophic. Though I would think they'd want one last regular season test against a likely WCF opponent.

I'm curious to see when the Suns start to rest players, particularly because we have a few guys (Cam and Paul) who missed some serious time and need to get their rhythm back.

It looks like they don't wanna show us anything in case we meet in the playoffs. That's weird though, figured they'd want this game as much as our guys do. If they win I *think* they'd be the only team with a positive winning record (2-1 if they beat us).

That's a pretty good thing to have for a young team. Especially one as intense and cocky as Memphis. I was looking forward to this game dammit lol.

I went through (not here, but for my own curiosity) this the other day before the GSW game - GSW is the only team that beat us 2x this year (we split 2-2) and Memphis has the chance to win the season series. The rest of our schedule and splits looks like this:

OKC 3-0
LAL 3-0
LAC 2-1
UTA 2-1
SAC 2-1

That's why I'm legit shocked theyre not playing their guys. Do they have #2 seed locked up already or something?

Quite frankly even if they do, I'd still wanna play if I was them. If for no other reason than to test myself against a team I'd have to go through in order to get to the finals.

Slim Charless wrote:

cberry78 wrote:

Slim Charless wrote:
It looks like they don't wanna show us anything in case we meet in the playoffs. That's weird though, figured they'd want this game as much as our guys do. If they win I *think* they'd be the only team with a positive winning record (2-1 if they beat us).

That's a pretty good thing to have for a young team. Especially one as intense and cocky as Memphis. I was looking forward to this game dammit lol.

I went through (not here, but for my own curiosity) this the other day before the GSW game - GSW is the only team that beat us 2x this year (we split 2-2) and Memphis has the chance to win the season series. The rest of our schedule and splits looks like this:

OKC 3-0
LAL 3-0
LAC 2-1
UTA 2-1
SAC 2-1

That's why I'm legit shocked theyre not playing their guys. Do they have #2 seed locked up already or something?

Quite frankly even if they do, I'd still wanna play if I was them. If for no other reason than to test myself against a team I'd have to go through in order to get to the finals.

yes, they have #2 locked up. 6 games up with 5 games to go. what they're probably doing is to test their entire rotation by seeing how their bench does against everybody's best. it's a legit strategy especially for a group that's never been deep in the playoffs.

Cam Johnson is active tonight. Definitely need to get him back in the swing of things. Playing full mins to get him game speed for the playoffs