Western Conference | Round 2 | (1) Phoenix Suns vs. (4) Dallas Mavericks (2-2)

[Phystic]

Suns played about as bad as I’ve seen and only lose by 9 I’m still sleeping well tonight.

Suns shot 13-28 from three. is that now considered bad

So you cherry pick one specific stat and think that means something?

Suns has a ton of unforced turnovers, missed layups, missed defensive assignments, gave up offensive rebounds.

But ya they made threes so that means suns played well. Troll harder

[og15]

Mavs can now also play defense for whole 48min, because LD won't get tired. So it's a whole another challenge for the Suns. Before the Mavs had no defense (only for about 30 min) and no offense aside from LD doing everything, now they have both.

The Mavs can still win. Imo if the Suns don't learn how to guard them on offense, the Mavs win the series.

Outside of the lower turnovers, the Mavs didn't have a particularly overly impressive offensive game. The Suns can certainly outscore a team producing 103 pts on 90 FGA and 13 FTA, so I wouldn't really call this game an example of the Suns not being able to guard Dallas. I don't think we can expect the Suns to consistently produce <100 pts with this many possessions, on average we'd probably expect 110 pts at a minimum, so Dallas still has their work cut out for them.

[HotRocks34]

Lots of bad and wrong calls but the one sticking out was that garbage 5th on Luka. Just insane to influence a game like that. Missed out of bounce, foul or 50:50 stuff okay but the ref knew that he would send Luka to the bench with that crap

At least two of the calls on Luka, maybe three, were horrendous.

But the team fought through it.

[JoeyLightYears]

Lots of bad and wrong calls but the one sticking out was that garbage 5th on Luka. Just insane to influence a game like that. Missed out of bounce, foul or 50:50 stuff okay but the ref knew that he would send Luka to the bench with that crap

No the one that sticks out was that absolutely garbage out of bounds that ended up being a 4 point play. Are the refs **** blind?

[SunsLyf3]

So.. Who will make a topic how Luka cooked CP3 in PnR tonight? Or poor defense from Booker on Brunson? Or that doesn't fit the narrative?

that topic would be appropriate if the Suns were trying on defense. they clearly didnt show up at all tonight.

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I think Suns are getting PTSD flashbacks from last year s finals

Not even close. Giannis>>>Luka. Milwaukee>>>>>Dallas.

[MrGoat]

Figured something out on defense. This was actually our worst offensive showing of the series. But it makes a big difference holding them under 100 instead of allowing 120+

Can't expect Paul to play that poorly again though so adjustments need to be made. Or hope that Scott Foster is assigned to game 4. Avoided the sweep so that's good

[zshawn10]

Great, I am sure the suns will love closing it out in 5 on their floor :p

[Gimli]

Mavs can now also play defense for whole 48min, because LD won't get tired. So it's a whole another challenge for the Suns. Before the Mavs had no defense (only for about 30 min) and no offense aside from LD doing everything, now they have both.

The Mavs can still win. Imo if the Suns don't learn how to guard them on offense, the Mavs win the series.

Lets be real. The only way Mavs have a chance at stealing this is if CP3 or DA suffer major injuries. This one is over in 5. Best case scenario is 6 for Dallas.

It's not, because it's not the same... They have both defense and offense now. It's not that Mavs made a small change and that's it. Just the homecourt advatange... They sort of switched positions and JB has the ball at least 50% of the time. That's a major change. Also gives the Mavs off ball movement.

[sunsbum]

Suns played about as bad as I’ve seen and only lose by 9 I’m still sleeping well tonight.

Suns shot 13-28 from three. is that now considered bad

What kind of weird cherry picked stat is that?!

[The-Power]

The way Luka was officiated tonight almost felt like a FU from the refs.

[JoeyLightYears]

Mavs can now also play defense for whole 48min, because LD won't get tired. So it's a whole another challenge for the Suns. Before the Mavs had no defense (only for about 30 min) and no offense aside from LD doing everything, now they have both.

The Mavs can still win. Imo if the Suns don't learn how to guard them on offense, the Mavs win the series.

Lets be real. The only way Mavs have a chance at stealing this is if CP3 or DA suffer major injuries. This one is over in 5. Best case scenario is 6 for Dallas.

It's not, because it's not the same... They have both defense and offense now. It's not that Mavs made a small change and that's it. Just the homecourt advatange... They sort of switched positions and JB has the ball at least 50% of the time. That's a major change. Also gives the Mavs off ball movement.

Your faith in your team is admirable and adorable

[zonedefense]

Suns are still in a good spot. Sloppy turnovers and Mavs hustle made the difference today. On defense they need to figure out how to defend Luka in the post. The no double team scheme collapsed when Luka started to play bully ball.

[Archx]

Who knew???

Luka played the exact same was as usual... 25 shots in 34 minutes, having the ball most of the time. You haters are really weird. Nothing to do with reality, just take the result and act like Luka played differently depending on what fits your narrative.

Actually he didn’t dominate the ball nearly as much. I liked when they posted him up instead of having him initiate. Someone said they did that more during the regular season and I didn’t see it in the first two games. Suns played sloppy as hell though. I still think they finish this in 5

Because he had foul troubles otherwise he controled the game and Brunson finally did his thing like he always did. You saw how quickly Suns came back when he went to the bench. And since people love +/- so much, he had game high +20.

[SunsLyf3]

With how much Luka and the Dallas bench is barking you would think they're about to be up 3-0 lol.

You must not have watched last game. Suns were showboating and hot dogging like crazy.

Like the team that took the lead? Luka was barking and flexing the first 2 games for 3 quarters then stfu real quick in the 4th. .

[leolozon]

Who knew???

Luka played the exact same was as usual... 25 shots in 34 minutes, having the ball most of the time. You haters are really weird. Nothing to do with reality, just take the result and act like Luka played differently depending on what fits your narrative.

Actually he didn’t dominate the ball nearly as much. I liked when they posted him up instead of having him initiate. Someone said they did that more during the regular season and I didn’t see it in the first two games. Suns played sloppy as hell though. I still think they finish this in 5

He posted up more like he did often in the RS, which I like. But he still controlled much of the action when he was there. He was short on way too many shots, but the usage rate must have been close to the same.

I said Suns in 6 when the series started and I see no reason to change my mind. Could be Suns in 5, they are still the better team.

[ejn1214]

Ok couch GM.

When the sun's win it let me know. Cp3 isn't getting younger and their younger players aren't getting much better.

Thank you for proving how little you watch or understand basketball

All of Bridges, Johnson , ayton and booker have improved every year.

That's exciting. Maybe you can send them all a Good job, good effort medal.

[Texas Chuck]

I mean Dallas outplayed em. Plain and simple. Suns still up a game and still far more talented. But Dallas is gonna fight.

[Phystic]

Officiating I thought was fine. For the most part they let contact go. They had some ticky tack fouls, Doncic did get a couple soft fouls.

Only complaint I have is the multiple blatantly wrong out of bounds calls. But that wasn't the reasons Suns lostz just made it more difficult

[G R E Y]

Seventeen TOs and 14 fewer shots taken by the Suns.

[Gimli]

Mavs can now also play defense for whole 48min, because LD won't get tired. So it's a whole another challenge for the Suns. Before the Mavs had no defense (only for about 30 min) and no offense aside from LD doing everything, now they have both.

The Mavs can still win. Imo if the Suns don't learn how to guard them on offense, the Mavs win the series.

Outside of the lower turnovers, the Mavs didn't have a particularly overly impressive offensive game. The Suns can certainly outscore a team producing 103 pts on 90 FGA and 13 FTA, so I wouldn't really call this game an example of the Suns not being able to guard Dallas. I don't think we can expect the Suns to consistently produce <100 pts with this many possessions, on average we'd probably expect 110 pts at a minimum, so Dallas still has their work cut out for them.

But that's Dallas' gameplan. It's been like that for the whole season since January. Score 105, while other teams scores 98...
It's not that offense scores lots of points, it's that LD keeps the energy for defense. LD is actually a good midpost / lowpost defender and won't get abused and won't miss rotations, while he has energy. Now the Mavs found a way to keep LD fresh.

Maybe the Mavs didn't score 115 points, but they got everything they wanted.