Western Conference | Round 1 | (1) Phoenix Suns VS. (8) New Orleans Pelicans (PHX 3-2)

[timO]

Suns can beat pels in 3 without booker, im gonna say in 4, so 6, 4-2.

But they will need him vs Grizz.

seriusly you think scrubs pels gonna take down the Suns?

[JujitsuFlip]

Suns can beat pels in 3 without booker, im gonna say in 4, so 6, 4-2.

But they will need him vs Grizz.

seriusly you think scrubs pels gonna take down the Suns?

They wouldn't face the Grizzlies next around is the reason for the GIF, lol

[JujitsuFlip]

Booker out 2 games and the series at 1-1, this is why they had to find a way to capitalize last season when up 2-0 in the Finals, never guaranteed to get back there.

[spanishninja]

This PHO team so far in PO

LAL (injured Davis) - win
DEN (injured Murray) - win
LAC (injured Kawhi) - win
MIL (healthy) - defeat
NOLA (injured Zion) and (injured Booker) - now its interesting.

Yikes. Phoenix looking like a regular season team. Remind me of the budenholzer Hawks back in the day. A bunch of quality players but no top dog.

the no top dog who scored 31 in a half? calling them a regular season team only after the best player goes down is pretty cringey even by real GM standards. that's like saying the 18-19 warriors were just a regular season team because the lost the finals after KD tore his achilles.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

Phoenix could very well lose in the first round at this point.

[Funcrusher]

Suns can beat pels in 3 without booker, im gonna say in 4, so 6, 4-2.

But they will need him vs Grizz.

seriusly you think scrubs pels gonna take down the Suns?

did you hurt your head today?

[Calamity_Cometh]

Adapt or die. This is why I never take any opponent for granted. And not just the injuries. Pelicans want to win too and clawed their way into the playoffs. That's a dangerous opponent.

[Alonzo_Morning]

Got my bet in just in time. Phew

[NO-KG-AI]

Maybe they aren't lucky, and the Suns aren't exposed, it's time for everyone to admit the Pelicans are a lot better than they are given credit for.

The Suns are still going to win this series though, and be better for it long term IMO. Better to get your lumps and wakeup calls out early (think 08 Celtics).

[Duke4life831]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

[spanishninja]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

i never thought they were pushoverz. the media did but they were just being lazy

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[tamaraw08]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

How much better would they be if Zion plays for like 24 minutes per game?
Would he help or would he disrupt their flow?

[Duke4life831]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

i never thought they were pushoverz. the media did but they were just being lazy

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

Not saying everyone thought they were pushovers. But many in the media and on here haven't seen this team actually play (cant blame them because this team is never on national TV or is talked about). So many just look at the overall record and think, scrub team. While in reality they've looked like a normal 5-7 seed for the majority of the year.

[timO]

seriusly you think scrubs pels gonna take down the Suns?

did you hurt your head today?

just mistake the bracket...

put mavs instead

pels are still scrubs, and you all are overreacting

[Duke4life831]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

How much better would they be if Zion plays for like 24 minutes per game?
Would he help or would he disrupt their flow?

I mean the thing is, what's working is the two man offense. Green has simplified this offense where everyone just plays around BI and CJ. That can work when its two guys. Much harder to do it with 3 guys.

But ya with that said Zion on limited minutes could easily be a huge boost to this team. You could easily split up the minutes where we rarely see all 3 on the court together, but we never have just 1 guy on the court.

Because again adding that 3rd guy on the court at the same time, changes the offense pretty big. But if you could make it so the majority of the game where you get to keep the offense of 2 guys taking their turns. Ya Zion would be a crazy good addition to them. Just think trying to make the offense revolve around all 3 at once, is too big of a change this late in the season.

[jokeboy86]

Ya I think many people are starting to realize just how much better this Pels team is compared to their overall record. Three things drastically throw it off, the horrible 1-12 start, BI getting banged up a couple times throughout the year, and the late addition of CJ.

1. Take away the 1-12 start, they are 38-35 in their last 73 games. Not great, but also not a super scrub team.
2. They're 32-26 when BI plays a full game (1 loss when he only played 8 minutes).
3. They're 12-7 when both BI and CJ play and 11-3 in their last 14 games together.

To be clear, Im not saying the Pels are some secret contender this year. But ya when you take away the horrible start (6 months ago), and all the games BI missed, then add in how well they've played since getting CJ. This current team aint no push over. And if Booker really is going to miss the next 2 games on the road, this is a real series right now.

i never thought they were pushoverz. the media did but they were just being lazy

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

That's cause they're obsessed with Zion. Zion and Ben Simmons have gotten far too much coverage for guys who haven't played one game this season.

[NotaHypeJob]

Seeing the Suns struggle without Booker makes me think that Anthony Davis was right about last year

[Phystic]

it's overreaction until you pay attention and see the Suns have been slipping since the all star break. check the drtg especially

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

That's my concern. As I've said in other threads, I wanted no part of Pelicans in first round. Their record does not match their team as it is today. And on top of that the Suns have looked like trash for a month or so

NO's (32 & 28) with BI not injured, including the slow start.

Though small sample size, 50 win pace with both CJ & BI playing.

Yup. Tried to explain that before but everyone wants to say how trash Pelicans are and suns had a cakewalk. Stupid

[TeamTragic]

Seeing the Suns struggle without Booker makes me think that Anthony Davis was right about last year

Anthony Davis should worry about staying on the court and not about Booker.

[rilamann]

Seeing the Suns struggle without Booker makes me think that Anthony Davis was right about last year

Anthony Davis should worry about staying on the court and not about Booker.

Yea, Anthony Davis doesn't have a leg to stand on.