NBA PLAYOFFS: GAME 3: Phoenix Suns @ Los Angeles Clippers (Tied 1-1) | Thursday | 7:30 PM

[Revived]

Lol this board is ridiculous. Complaining even in wins.. you guys are embarrassing.


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They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


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Do either of you realize that if Suns are struggling to barely squeak by Clippers team without Kawhi/George then how they look against other far better teams? Or are we hoping that Jokic/Murray suffer a convenient injury so they miss the next round as well and so on and so forth?

I hate the BS of “oh it’s just wins, just be happy”. Plenty of us here voiced our concerns last season when the Suns were struggling badly to beat an inexperienced Pelicans team that was also missing Zion in the playoffs. It took 37 yr old CP3 having to go 14/14 perfect shooting just to win that series. And guess what happened next round fellas?

So stop this nonsense. Save star I know you’re always a glass half full kinda guy and that’s a good mindset to have life wise sure. But in sports, reality sets in and struggling to beat teams they should handedly beat WILL catch up to you just like it did last season.

And blowouts aren’t rare in the playoffs. Look at the Boston/Hawks series if you think it never happens.

Neither of you know anything about sustainability…you think Booker/KD/CP3 having to play 45 mins every single game to win is a good strategy? Not to mention how Booker has to play perfect basketball in each one. Like seriously come on I know both of y’all watch enough basketball to answer this question.

If Booker even has “average” superstar games (like say 25 pts, 5 assists on 50% shooting), the Suns are looking at being 0-3 right now.

I’m not saying don’t be happy about the win. Because it could be worse, we very well may have been 0-3 but thankfully are up 2-1 with home court advantage back now. But also, don’t just dismiss others concerns as if it’s not valid.

[sunsbg]

I don't think even the players believe they can achieve anything big this season. If Kawhi misses another game, one more round is likely, but this team gets beat by healthy Nuggets and destroyed by Warriors/Bucks/Celtics.

CP3 is washed. Ayton has regressed quite a bit. The offense is ugly iso hero ball with a lot of TOs. Monty's 0.5 offense doesn't have place with this roster. Probably just better to go for another iso player in Irving and get something for CP3 and Ayton before they retire and leave respectively. Give Kyrie 3y contract, which ends with KD's and once they are gone, hope another star to pair with Booker is available.

Congrats on a terrible take. No one was playing "hero ball" tonight. The defense was intent on keeping the ball out of KDs hands and played really good defense on him. Booker and the suns took what was given to them. Did you not see late in the 4th when they went small and started flash doubling booker the ball started moving around more? Good win, terrible take, where's Ayton? Some say hes still fumbling that entry bounce pass somewhere in the universe.

Watch Booker's highlight and tell me which of his baskets is a result of some great team play. Suns are not looking like a real contender. A bunch of stupid TOs, KD bricking shots at the backboard. No excuse to keep this Clippers team this close and risk losing at the end.

[Revived]

Read on Twitter

A Clippers beatwriter complaining about foul calls against the Clippers is just so unprofessional lol. Yeah the one where Booker grabbed Westbrook should’ve been called but that was about the only terrible call. Everything else went both ways, equally crap calls on both sides.

[Qwigglez]

Fell asleep watching the game. I'm almost done with the 3rd quarter and man... Ayton needs to learn to catch. I think the coach should try this method.

Watch on YouTube

[SunsRback4Good]

They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


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Do either of you realize that if Suns are struggling to barely squeak by Clippers team without Kawhi/George then how they look against other far better teams? Or are we hoping that Jokic/Murray suffer a convenient injury so they miss the next round as well and so on and so forth?

I hate the BS of “oh it’s just wins, just be happy”. Plenty of us here voiced our concerns last season when the Suns were struggling badly to beat an inexperienced Pelicans team that was also missing Zion in the playoffs. It took 37 yr old CP3 having to go 14/14 perfect shooting just to win that series. And guess what happened next round fellas?

So stop this nonsense. Save star I know you’re always a glass half full kinda guy and that’s a good mindset to have life wise sure. But in sports, reality sets in and struggling to beat teams they should handedly beat WILL catch up to you just like it did last season.

And blowouts aren’t rare in the playoffs. Look at the Boston/Hawks series if you think it never happens.

Neither of you know anything about sustainability…you think Booker/KD/CP3 having to play 45 mins every single game to win is a good strategy? Not to mention how Booker has to play perfect basketball in each one. Like seriously come on I know both of y’all watch enough basketball to answer this question.

If Booker even has “average” superstar games (like say 25 pts, 5 assists on 50% shooting), the Suns are looking at being 0-3 right now.

I’m not saying don’t be happy about the win. Because it could be worse, we very well may have been 0-3 but thankfully are up 2-1 with home court advantage back now. But also, don’t just dismiss others concerns as if it’s not valid.

Nicely said and I agree with everything you said Revived. Brains and beauty must go hand in hand in your family.

[Jdiddy701]

They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do either of you realize that if Suns are struggling to barely squeak by Clippers team without Kawhi/George then how they look against other far better teams? Or are we hoping that Jokic/Murray suffer a convenient injury so they miss the next round as well and so on and so forth?

I hate the BS of “oh it’s just wins, just be happy”. Plenty of us here voiced our concerns last season when the Suns were struggling badly to beat an inexperienced Pelicans team that was also missing Zion in the playoffs. It took 37 yr old CP3 having to go 14/14 perfect shooting just to win that series. And guess what happened next round fellas?

So stop this nonsense. Save star I know you’re always a glass half full kinda guy and that’s a good mindset to have life wise sure. But in sports, reality sets in and struggling to beat teams they should handedly beat WILL catch up to you just like it did last season.

And blowouts aren’t rare in the playoffs. Look at the Boston/Hawks series if you think it never happens.

Neither of you know anything about sustainability…you think Booker/KD/CP3 having to play 45 mins every single game to win is a good strategy? Not to mention how Booker has to play perfect basketball in each one. Like seriously come on I know both of y’all watch enough basketball to answer this question.

If Booker even has “average” superstar games (like say 25 pts, 5 assists on 50% shooting), the Suns are looking at being 0-3 right now.

I’m not saying don’t be happy about the win. Because it could be worse, we very well may have been 0-3 but thankfully are up 2-1 with home court advantage back now. But also, don’t just dismiss others concerns as if it’s not valid.

You’re going to ignore the fact that the Suns could also be up 3-0? I definitely have some concerns going forward with the Suns but I trust that they’ll figure it out.

We need Ayton can get his head out his ass. He looks terrible on both ends. The Clippers had a ton of layups right in front of him, he doesn’t try to get rebounds, he is timid every time the ball is in his hands. I’ve always thought he’s the key to everything. He has the simplest role in the NBA, getting paid a ton of money and refuses to do the simple things. He is the one piece the worries me going forward (other than health).


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[Ghost of Kleine]

Craig always seems to play better in a contract year it seems! Serious question though, IF we had to choose between giving the MLE to Craig or Okogie knowing what we know of each now and what they typically bring in their roles for us, Which would you prioritize??

Craig. Okogie plays with good effort and has good defense but he’s reckless offensively and his size hurts him and his vision is terrible so he gets offensive rebounds and gets blocked instead of kicking it out to one of his 3-4 open teammates.

Craig has the better size and skill while Okogie has the youth.

Hopefully we can find someone better, but yeah, Craig, He is fairly consistent, has shot the 3 well all year, solid rebounder, even offensively sometimes, defends well. Okogie had an awesome 5 game streak and I saw him regress back to his 5 year averages. He won't get much more than the minimum, if he gets more at all, unless he has some big playoff game or two. He is the better defender and has flashes of dynamic play or great games..but just flashes outside of those 5 or so games in a row.

Matisse Thybulle is also an unrestricted free agent this summer. Although not sure who could be cheaper depending upon how Okogie performs down the stretch? Could either possibly be had with our taxpayer MLE?

[WeekapaugGroove]

Good win. Took a punch early and survived really good Powell and Russ games. I don't take any playoff win for granted regardless of circumstances.

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[Qwigglez]

Just finished watching the fourth quarter. Clippers were heavily playing the passing lanes. I'm surprised the Suns didn't run some PnR's there with DA, though the Clippers were running some makeshift zone defense. I don't think CP3 could have had any more open looks then he did in the 4th quarter there. He just missed everything. The only 3 he made this game was a contested 3 over Zubac. Booker is the best player in the playoffs right now and we are witnessing some amazing basketball by him.

Overall, I like the adjustment Monty made, Shamet only playing a handful of minutes in the 1st half and Lee and Okogie with some impactful play in the 2nd half. I'm still shocked we haven't seen any Ross yet, but I think Monty feels he will get easily exploited on defense, which I would probably agree with. I'm hoping Payne can come back for Game 5, as I don't think he'll be available for Game 4.

Also I mentioned the clumsiness of Ayton in the third, but after that he had 3 plays where he made the bucket or got a foul. I'll take the win. The Clippers played ultra aggressive and should have been blown out but Powell hit his shots and so did Westbrook. Don't want to forget about Mann hitting 2 3s too. Suns need to know who to leave open on 3s though and that is not Powell, Gordon, or Mann. Batum is doing his best Crowder impersonation shooting 1/8 from 3 so far in this series (made one in game 1).

[Qwigglez]

I do want to also point out I'm glad the Clippers traded away Reggie Jackson as that guy gave the Suns heavy problems last time we faced the Clippers in the playoffs. BUT... we will have to face him with the Nuggets which is a huge concern. Will need Payne back ASAP.

[WeekapaugGroove]

It's about perspective.

Like you can say, hey the suns had to grind out a game where the clippers were missing their two best players

Or you can say, they won a road playoff game where their opponent shot over 40% on good volume from 3 and over 50% overall. Plus had a role player Powell go all NBA Jam 'he's on fire'. You usually lose playoff games where either of those things happen especially on the road.

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[Hitachi77]

They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do either of you realize that if Suns are struggling to barely squeak by Clippers team without Kawhi/George then how they look against other far better teams? Or are we hoping that Jokic/Murray suffer a convenient injury so they miss the next round as well and so on and so forth?

I hate the BS of “oh it’s just wins, just be happy”. Plenty of us here voiced our concerns last season when the Suns were struggling badly to beat an inexperienced Pelicans team that was also missing Zion in the playoffs. It took 37 yr old CP3 having to go 14/14 perfect shooting just to win that series. And guess what happened next round fellas?

So stop this nonsense. Save star I know you’re always a glass half full kinda guy and that’s a good mindset to have life wise sure. But in sports, reality sets in and struggling to beat teams they should handedly beat WILL catch up to you just like it did last season.

And blowouts aren’t rare in the playoffs. Look at the Boston/Hawks series if you think it never happens.

Neither of you know anything about sustainability…you think Booker/KD/CP3 having to play 45 mins every single game to win is a good strategy? Not to mention how Booker has to play perfect basketball in each one. Like seriously come on I know both of y’all watch enough basketball to answer this question.

If Booker even has “average” superstar games (like say 25 pts, 5 assists on 50% shooting), the Suns are looking at being 0-3 right now.

I’m not saying don’t be happy about the win. Because it could be worse, we very well may have been 0-3 but thankfully are up 2-1 with home court advantage back now. But also, don’t just dismiss others concerns as if it’s not valid.

There’s plenty of room for optimism. We are figuring out chemistry on the fly. There were always going to be growing pains, even though KD was/is the easiest superstar to integrate in history. This was never going to be an easy game. There are plenty of situations where a star goes down and for 1-2 games other guys step up big, and it’s hard to prepare for that kind of situation. Two years ago the Clippers won their only game in Utah without Kawhi. Over the course of multiple games sure, you can make the proper adjustments, but it’s difficult in the beginning. And they still are a deep, confident team, playing at home, and have a former MVP who plays his best when he’s not with other stars.

Look at the Grizzlies who are basically unbeatable at home without Ja. You can’t just dismiss these kinds of wins.

Also, the stat cherry picking is just silly. Sure Booker could have played worse, but CP3 could have easily made some of those wide open 3s. And if Booker was not playing as well, KD would have taken more shots. This KD / Booker thing is being looked at the wrong way.

[handsome salary]

I know there's negatives but they won a must win. I'll take it. Its also great to see Devin ramping it up on both sides. If KD wasn't on the team he'd be double teamed like last year with the Mavs. Lue be rolling the dice with CP3/Ayton/Bridges/Monty beating them.

I don't get Ayton. Season 5 and year 3 of playoffs yet he still looks like a rookie figuring things out.
Teams are not scared of the Suns with Ayton playing that way, CP3 just being old/washed a lot of the time and Monty having little trust in his bench. Confidence rides high for any team playing the Suns.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Fell asleep watching the game. I'm almost done with the 3rd quarter and man... Ayton needs to learn to catch. I think the coach should try this method.

Watch on YouTube

I've mentioned it before, but then expected him to get past it with time. And can choose to agree or vehemently disagree with me on this, but I truly believe that Ayton has fully mentally checked out from this team and is ready and (distracted by) the acceptance that they'll AGAIN look to trade him this summer.

We've all seen what Ayton is/ has been capable of when fully engaged and focused in on things. But I think he's simply mentally and emotionally moved on, and is looking ahead to this summer and whatever new team he might find himself on. A couple of points in this belief:

1- We began burning our bridges with Ayton under Saver when he himself first met with him at that restaurant shortly after the first playoffs he dominated in and decided he didn't want to give him his initial contract extension.

2- We then furthered the damage repeatedly by trying to offload him in multiple trades. As well as reducing him to a small supplementary role once Paul got here and we adopted the guard centric offense and drop coverage scheme.

3- waiting for him to finally get an offer that was palatable to him/ his agent, only to match it immediately and then put him back in his supplementary cleanup big role with us.

4- Ayton has for sure heard all the discontent and loathing of him in social media and from fans here because how quickly news is shared expressed everywhere these days. And Ayton for as professional as he's been so far is still obviously a kid ( a giant kid) that is soft hearted, easygoing, but also likely sensitive to many things about himself and his perception/ value. So it's not uncommon for these negative distractions to affect focus, investment, efforts.

Now to be clear, I'm not saying he's shown enough progression to validate/ demand a role as a top 2-3 option yet. All I'm saying is that it's entirely reasonable that he's ( regardless of being professional the entire time and not being a malcontent or a locker room cancer) mentally and emotionally checked out and just ready to move on towards a fresh start somewhere else due to not feeling valued or prioritized here. Now it might be mostly a result of Williams underutilizing him and yet another blatant example of our front office's inability to properly assess and develop talent.

Or it might be fully on Ayton for bring to soft, affable, childish, and/ or not possessing to determination to reach his full potential and be truly great! My analysis places the outcome squarely in the middle of these considerations with BOTH parties being at fault. Regardless of my views on this premise, it doesn't change the outcome or the likelihood that Ayton's time with us is most likely done for various reasons. I just don't see how we could repair this internal relationship fracture that's been building for quite some time. Best for both parties to move on in a different direction.

** Also might not have helped the situation for them to trade his close friend in Bridges either!

[WeekapaugGroove]

Fell asleep watching the game. I'm almost done with the 3rd quarter and man... Ayton needs to learn to catch. I think the coach should try this method.

Watch on YouTube

I've mentioned it before, but then expected him to get past it with time. And can choose to agree or vehemently disagree with me on this, but I truly believe that Ayton has fully mentally checked out from this team and is ready and (distracted by) the acceptance that they'll AGAIN look to trade him this summer.

We've all seen what Ayton is/ has been capable of when fully engaged and focused in on things. But I think he's simply mentally and emotionally moved on, and is looking ahead to this summer and whatever new team he might find himself on. A couple of points in this belief:

1- We began burning our bridges with Ayton under Saver when he himself first met with him at that restaurant shortly after the first playoffs he dominated in and decided he didn't want to give him his initial contract extension.

2- We then furthered the damage repeatedly by trying to offload him in multiple trades. As well as reducing him to a small supplementary role once Paul got here and we adopted the guard centric offense and drop coverage scheme.

3- waiting for him to finally get an offer that was palatable to him/ his agent, only to match it immediately and then put him back in his supplementary cleanup big role with us.

4- Ayton has for sure heard all the discontent and loathing of him in social media and from fans here because how quickly news is shared expressed everywhere these days. And Ayton for as professional as he's been so far is still obviously a kid ( a giant kid) that is soft hearted, easygoing, but also likely sensitive to many things about himself and his perception/ value. So it's not uncommon for these negative distractions to affect focus, investment, efforts.

Now to be clear, I'm not saying he's shown enough progression to validate/ demand a role as a top 2-3 option yet. All I'm saying is that it's entirely reasonable that he's ( regardless of being professional the entire time and not being a malcontent or a locker room cancer) mentally and emotionally checked out and just ready to move on towards a fresh start somewhere else due to not feeling valued or prioritized here. Now it might be mostly a result of Williams underutilizing him and yet another blatant example of our front office's inability to properly assess and develop talent.

Or it might be fully on Ayton for bring to soft, affable, childish, and/ or not possessing to determination to reach his full potential and be truly great! My analysis places the outcome squarely in the middle of these considerations with BOTH parties being at fault. Regardless of my views on this premise, it doesn't change the outcome or the likelihood that Ayton's time with us is most likely done for various reasons. I just don't see how we could repair this internal relationship fracture that's been building for quite some time. Best for both parties to move on in a different direction.

** Also might not have helped the situation for them to trade his close friend in Bridges either!

Well see how the next few weeks go but yeah at this point I'd be surprised if Ayton wasn't traded this summer. Probably best for everyone. Ayton, the team, most suns fans.

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[KdoubleDees23]

They want to see our team winning by 40 and sitting all our starters by halftime.

Everything less that that is a failure. Who cares if they win or lose on the road lol.

Right! It’s pretty sad what this board has become. The Clippers are a DEEP team. There will never be an easy win in the playoffs. The Suns won, that’s all that matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do either of you realize that if Suns are struggling to barely squeak by Clippers team without Kawhi/George then how they look against other far better teams? Or are we hoping that Jokic/Murray suffer a convenient injury so they miss the next round as well and so on and so forth?

I hate the BS of “oh it’s just wins, just be happy”. Plenty of us here voiced our concerns last season when the Suns were struggling badly to beat an inexperienced Pelicans team that was also missing Zion in the playoffs. It took 37 yr old CP3 having to go 14/14 perfect shooting just to win that series. And guess what happened next round fellas?

So stop this nonsense. Save star I know you’re always a glass half full kinda guy and that’s a good mindset to have life wise sure. But in sports, reality sets in and struggling to beat teams they should handedly beat WILL catch up to you just like it did last season.

And blowouts aren’t rare in the playoffs. Look at the Boston/Hawks series if you think it never happens.

Neither of you know anything about sustainability…you think Booker/KD/CP3 having to play 45 mins every single game to win is a good strategy? Not to mention how Booker has to play perfect basketball in each one. Like seriously come on I know both of y’all watch enough basketball to answer this question.

If Booker even has “average” superstar games (like say 25 pts, 5 assists on 50% shooting), the Suns are looking at being 0-3 right now.

I’m not saying don’t be happy about the win. Because it could be worse, we very well may have been 0-3 but thankfully are up 2-1 with home court advantage back now. But also, don’t just dismiss others concerns as if it’s not valid.

Revived it’s the damn playoffs!!!!!! Clippers are one of the deepest teams in the league and hustle ! We are 11 games in with KD and still not to where we can be ! Teams differ and we may play the Nuggets at a higher level than we play the clippers. All that matters in sports is the final score !

U are one of the biggest crybabies on this forum and it’s annoying ! Suns won! Let’s go get another

[Biff]

A win is a win but I agree with Revived, this team does not look like a contender. I was expecting a much larger margin of victory given the talent gap. Book/KD/CP3 all having to play over 40 minutes to beat the Clippers without their best 2 players is pretty concerning to me. CP3 and KD are both highly injury prone and this is a recipe for disaster. There's zero chance we make it to the finals with this strategy. One of the 2 is going to get injured. We tend to play the Nuggets much better than the Clippers though, so maybe we get past them next round. But unless Monty can figure out some rotations where our main guys can rest more than a few minutes a game, we're pretty f'd IMO.

[Jdiddy701]

I don’t think DA is checked out. I’ve seen so many videos of DA cheering on his team and seems to be very happy playing for the Suns. I just think this is who he is as a basketball player. He’s been like this his entire career.


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[kennydorglas]

Ive said this multiple times here
DA definitely looks happier when hes on the bench

[KdoubleDees23]

I just put $1k Ayton scores over 14 in game 3 !!!! Let’s go