Game 70: Phoenix Suns (36-33) @ Houston Rockets (46-22)

kennydorglas · Post #201 » by **kennydorglas** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:09 am

Marcus again outrebounding his brother. I always had this impression that he's the better rebounder.

Mr Puddles · Post #202 » by **Mr Puddles** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:12 am

5th game in a row where we've out-rebounded our opponent (+10 rebounding advantage during that stretch). I like this bigger line-up with PJ at the Shooting Guard and Marcus at the starting small forward.

Saberestar · Post #203 » by **Saberestar** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:12 am

Great great game, I enjoy the victory and I think we played like a playoff team.
What a tremendous defender is Tucker, the guy is a fighter and he really knows how to defend all type of players. We are lucky to have him on our side.
Bledsoe and MoBros with another big game, they are playing better and better with every game, I am happy with their attitude and they are not talking to the refs a lot. Good job.

DaleyBlind · Post #204 » by **DaleyBlind** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 4:29 am

boy was I wrong, didn't think we would win today. Great game

letsgosuns · Post #205 » by **letsgosuns** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 4:37 am

It is not a coincidence the Suns were able to guard Harden better tonight. It was the first time they played him this year where it was not Bledsoe and Dragic starting together or Thomas off the bench. Now the Suns are not incredibly undersized anymore and Harden does not annihilate them. Tucker is able to guard him exclusively and the entire Suns lineup is much bigger the whole game. No more three point guard garbage where you have two point guards trying to box out for rebounds in crunch time.

Revived · Post #206 » by **Revived** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:19 am

Sunlight wrote:Nice win. This showed, no need re-sign Knight at all.

Yea too bad we traded a lottery pick for him, no way Suns let someone walk after trading a high lottery pick for them.

Jdiddy701 · Post #207 » by **Jdiddy701** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:38 am

bigfoot wrote:In terms of AJ Price getting minutes tonight what choice does Horny really have? Knight is injured. Thorton, Green, and Bullock are shooting guards. Bledsoe has to rest. Goodwin isn't ready to run the second unit as the primary ballhandler. That leaves Price. Unfortunately Houston left him open alot and he missed his shots. Still ... we won by 15 on the road with a bunch of young players against an MVP candidate and a playoff-bound team. What's not to like.

Archie has been really good as backup PG. What pissed me off the most was leaving Price in with Bledsoe and Archie. That's dumb! Very dumb. No reason for that at all!!!

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Blackification · Post #208 » by **Blackification** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:40 am

SF88 wrote:
Sunlight wrote:Nice win. This showed, no need re-sign Knight at all.

Yea too bad we traded a lottery pick for him, no way Suns let someone walk after trading a high lottery pick for them.

sign and trade?

Blackification · Post #209 » by **Blackification** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:40 am

Jdiddy701 wrote:
bigfoot wrote:In terms of AJ Price getting minutes tonight what choice does Horny really have? Knight is injured. Thorton, Green, and Bullock are shooting guards. Bledsoe has to rest. Goodwin isn't ready to run the second unit as the primary ballhandler. That leaves Price. Unfortunately Houston left him open alot and he missed his shots. Still ... we won by 15 on the road with a bunch of young players against an MVP candidate and a playoff-bound team. What's not to like.

Archie has been really good as backup PG. What pissed me off the most was leaving Price in with Bledsoe and Archie. That's dumb! Very dumb. No reason for that at all!!!

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

At least Archie has been with the team and knows the damn plays..

JMac1 · Post #210 » by **JMac1** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:55 am

letsgosuns wrote:It is not a coincidence the Suns were able to guard Harden better tonight. It was the first time they played him this year where it was not Bledsoe and Dragic starting together or Thomas off the bench. Now the Suns are not incredibly undersized anymore and Harden does not annihilate them. Tucker is able to guard him exclusively and the entire Suns lineup is much bigger the whole game. No more three point guard garbage where you have two point guards trying to box out for rebounds in crunch time.

That is a good point! Bledsoe and 6'5 Goodwin and 6'6 PJ with a little Price in there.

letsgosuns · Post #211 » by **letsgosuns** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:55 am

I know tonight was a great win and people are excited, but keep it in perspective. First off, the Rockets were missing Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones, their starting frontcourt. Secondly, Beverley and Terry were questionable to play because of injuries and so was Ariza because he was sick. For a long stretch in the fourth quarter the Suns struggled to score while Price was in the game. Now I am reading on here that tonight's performance shows there is no need re-sign Brandon Knight. What? What about the previous game where the Suns scored only 74 points and shot 9.1% on 3pts. Or the game against the Hawks where the Suns got destroyed in the fourth quarter. Or the game against the Warriors where the Suns were embarrassed in the second half without Knight. I would venture to guess the Suns could have definitely used Knight in those games. Without him, the Suns have Bledsoe, Goodwin, and no one else.

Right now, Tucker or Marcus are playing together and neither is a shooting guard. How quickly people forget after tonight's win that Marcus shot 0-7 on 3pts last game and Tucker was 1-6 on 3pts. A combined 1-13. Pretty awful. Now suddenly the Suns beat an undermanned Rockets team and fans are acting like a team of Tucker and the Morris brothers is great. Well I disagree. VERY STRONGLY. I saw the same Suns team that won tonight also play one of the ugliest games in NBA history two days ago. If not for the Pelicans playing even worse, the Suns would have lost to any other team that was good. Oh yeah, the Pelicans were missing players including ANTHONY DAVIS and Evans was playing injured.

Yes it was an awesome win. But the reason it was so awesome is because nobody expected the Suns to win tonight. Most fans figured it would be a loss so winning the game was a big surprise. However, the Knicks also just beat the Spurs the other day. I doubt anybody thinks the Knicks are suddenly a good team. No way am I putting the Suns win tonight anywhere near the level of the shocking Knicks win but you see what I am saying. As well as the Suns the played tonight, they are capable of playing just as terrible like they did in the game against the Pelicans. They are extremely inconsistent and that is who they are. Inconsistent teams do not win championships. I would still trade the Morris brothers in two seconds.

JMac1 · Post #212 » by **JMac1** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:56 am

Blackification wrote:
SF88 wrote:
Sunlight wrote:Nice win. This showed, no need re-sign Knight at all.

Yea too bad we traded a lottery pick for him, no way Suns let someone walk after trading a high lottery pick for them.

sign and trade?

I love Knight. True we have to pay him, but he is better than next year or the year after lottery pick....which could be a non-lottery pick, you know the Lakers.

JMac1 · Post #213 » by **JMac1** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:58 am

letsgosuns wrote:I know tonight was a great win and people are excited, but keep it in perspective. First off, the Rockets were missing Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones, their starting frontcourt. Secondly, Beverley and Terry were questionable to play because of injuries and so was Ariza because he was sick. For a long stretch in the fourth quarter the Suns struggled to score while Price was in the game. Now I am reading on here that tonight's performance shows there is no need re-sign Brandon Knight. What? What about the previous game where the Suns scored only 74 points and shot 9.1% on 3pts. Or the game against the Hawks where the Suns got destroyed in the fourth quarter. Or the game against the Warriors where the Suns were embarrassed in the second half without Knight. I would venture to guess the Suns could have definitely used Knight in those games. Without him, the Suns have Bledsoe, Goodwin, and no one else.

Right now, Tucker or Marcus are playing together and neither is a shooting guard. How quickly people forget after tonight's win that Marcus shot 0-7 on 3pts last game and Tucker was 1-6 on 3pts. A combined 1-13. Pretty awful. Now suddenly the Suns beat an undermanned Rockets team and fans are acting like a team of Tucker and the Morris brothers is great. Well I disagree. VERY STRONGLY. I saw the same Suns team that won tonight also play one of the ugliest games in NBA history two days ago. If not for the Pelicans playing even worse, the Suns would have lost to any other team that was good. Oh yeah, the Pelicans were missing players including ANTHONY DAVIS and Evans was playing injured.

Yes it was an awesome win. But the reason it was so awesome is because nobody expected the Suns to win tonight. Most fans figured it would be a loss so winning the game was a big surprise. However, the Knicks also just beat the Spurs the other day. I doubt anybody thinks the Knicks are suddenly a good team. No way am I putting the Suns win tonight anywhere near the level of the shocking Knicks win but you see what I am saying. As well as the Suns the played tonight, they are capable of playing just as terrible like they did in the game against the Pelicans. They are extremely inconsistent and that is who they are. Inconsistent teams do not win championships. I would still trade the Morris brothers in two seconds.

RunDogGun · Post #214 » by **RunDogGun** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:28 am

I'm so glad we have fans that want to make sure we don't get too exited about winning a game. It's a wonder we don't have fans at the game that keep that realist mentality, and barely participate in the game, oh wait, that is what we have at our games. Crappy fans, that tell other fans to sit down, be quiet, and not get so excited. :lol:

RunDogGun · Post #215 » by **RunDogGun** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:31 am

Tucker with a other great game. Man what are we thinking allowing this guy start for us.

Mr Puddles · Post #216 » by **Mr Puddles** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:02 am

letsgosuns wrote:I know tonight was a great win and people are excited, but keep it in perspective. First off, the Rockets were missing Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones, their starting frontcourt. Secondly, Beverley and Terry were questionable to play because of injuries and so was Ariza because he was sick. For a long stretch in the fourth quarter the Suns struggled to score while Price was in the game. Now I am reading on here that tonight's performance shows there is no need re-sign Brandon Knight. What? What about the previous game where the Suns scored only 74 points and shot 9.1% on 3pts. Or the game against the Hawks where the Suns got destroyed in the fourth quarter. Or the game against the Warriors where the Suns were embarrassed in the second half without Knight. I would venture to guess the Suns could have definitely used Knight in those games. Without him, the Suns have Bledsoe, Goodwin, and no one else.

The Rockets have amassed the 4th best record in the league while missing Dwight/Jones for the majority of the season. This wasn't a team trying to adjust from an unexpected injury, the Rockets have been plenty good without Howard & Jones.

letsgosuns wrote:Right now, Tucker or Marcus are playing together and neither is a shooting guard. How quickly people forget after tonight's win that Marcus shot 0-7 on 3pts last game and Tucker was 1-6 on 3pts. A combined 1-13. Pretty awful. Now suddenly the Suns beat an undermanned Rockets team and fans are acting like a team of Tucker and the Morris brothers is great. Well I disagree. VERY STRONGLY. I saw the same Suns team that won tonight also play one of the ugliest games in NBA history two days ago. If not for the Pelicans playing even worse, the Suns would have lost to any other team that was good. Oh yeah, the Pelicans were missing players including ANTHONY DAVIS and Evans was playing injured.

But the Suns managed to win that game. Earlier in the season, when our shots weren't falling we'd end up not just losing, we'd end up getting annihilated. Winning a games when your offense isn't clicking is a good thing, especially when the players who went 1-13 usually shoot 35% from the 3 point line. Also, as for Tucker not being a SG, you could make a very good argument that he's more of a shooting guard than Knight.

letsgosuns wrote:Yes it was an awesome win. But the reason it was so awesome is because nobody expected the Suns to win tonight. Most fans figured it would be a loss so winning the game was a big surprise. However, the Knicks also just beat the Spurs the other day. I doubt anybody thinks the Knicks are suddenly a good team. No way am I putting the Suns win tonight anywhere near the level of the shocking Knicks win but you see what I am saying. As well as the Suns the played tonight, they are capable of playing just as terrible like they did in the game against the Pelicans. They are extremely inconsistent and that is who they are. Inconsistent teams do not win championships. I would still trade the Morris brothers in two seconds.

It's not just that we won, but how we won. Recently our ball movement, team defense, and rebounding has looked a lot better. If we had won because we went on a crazy 3 point shooting spree that we'd likely not be able to match in subsequent game, or an irreplicable display of hero ball, I'd agree with you. This victory was due to effort and actually executing plays well, which is something we're starting to increasingly see from this Suns team.... and that is definitely something worth being excited about.

RaisingArizona · Post #217 » by **RaisingArizona** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:00 am

We won but let's trade half of the team because the Rockets had a few key players out. Forget we had a starter out. Forget that it was Len's first game in awhile. We must trade the twins ASAP.

Revived · Post #218 » by **Revived** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:04 am

Blackification wrote:
SF88 wrote:
Sunlight wrote:Nice win. This showed, no need re-sign Knight at all.

Yea too bad we traded a lottery pick for him, no way Suns let someone walk after trading a high lottery pick for them.

sign and trade?

Eh doubt we'll get anything of much value.

Revived · Post #219 » by **Revived** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:06 am

One thing I don't get is that if the Suns really needed a PG after the Dragic/IT trades, why didn't they throw like a 2nd rd pick at Ish Smith who ended up cut and then picked up off waivers by Philly? Ish played somewhat decent in our system here and has familiarity with most of these players and coaches.

Way better option than the likes of Seth Curry or AJ Price.

Young gun 6 · Post #220 » by **Young gun 6** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:27 am

With tucker hitting 30 soon. I wouldn't mind us getting another 27+ Sg defender when tucker starts declining. Even if it is to backup knight, we look so good with a good defensive Sg.