Gameday: Spurs at Suns

[-Sammy-]

WHEN: 8PM central, December 15, 2016
WHERE: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, AZ

It's a road game, which seems to always be good news for the good guys, but it's also G2 of a B2B after a short-handed close game last night, so there's plenty of room for x-factor stuff to happen. The injury report has LMA day-to-day (rest), but I'm sure he'll run tonight. Alex Len and Brandon Knight are both questionable (hip and hand, respectively) for a Phoenix team that's struggling for wins this season, so if we can overcome the mild fatigue of a travel B2B, we should be able to snag this one.

[Nolan]

We're getting on a bit of role hopefully we can continue that tonight, offense is looking more fluid. I'm expecting Pau and possibly Tony to sit this one out.

[ducler]

[Phreak50]

Aldridge starts with a bad miss, an intercepted pass, hesitating when wide open then pump faking and travelling, then an offensive foul.

He honestly doesn't look like he cares.

On the other hand Dedmon, he is becoming an alley-oop specialist and we are using him like teams use their finishers off picks and lobs. I love it!

[Milenkovic]

Aldridge's 'unhappiness' in pre season seems to be coming to the surface. Guy looks like he genuinely doesn't care and we look worse with him on the court

[imagump1313]

Aldridge starts with a bad miss, an intercepted pass, hesitating when wide open then pump faking and travelling, then an offensive foul.

He honestly doesn't look like he cares.

On the other hand Dedmon, he is becoming an alley-oop specialist and we are using him like teams use their finishers off picks and lobs. I love it!

I really think he is more confused with what his role is on this team than not caring. Someone needs to straighten this out.

[Phreak50]

Ugly game and Sean Elliot called it, the worst defense in the league and suddenly our guys got selfish. Parker especially, over dribbling often and yet again having no options due to lack of the ability to get by his man. We aren't winning anything until he moves on (or to the bench).

Only 19 assists all game.

And Aldridge with 5 TO, Lee and Simmons with 4 each. Really lazy and sloppy at times.

Kawhi was solid and great all around Pau 18/9, Dedom 11/9 - both really good. Love Dedom's athleticism.

[-Sammy-]

I only got to see a little bit of the game, and I was able to listen to a bit more, but I'm disappointed that it sounds like we didn't post a more convincing effort against a below-average team.

I'll echo what's been said on our forum most of the season, which is that it sounds like Dedmon should be starting. Frankly, a Dedmon/Gasol/Leonard frontcourt seems like a decent enough lineup, and with LMA continuing to not earn his money, I think exploring options makes sense. Lee's been solid and we can pick up a few big bodies somewhere to shore up the bench frontcourt. I can't take 2+ seasons of LMA underwhelming.

[Nolan]

Not our best performance last night. We had some moments when we looked pretty great but we also had some pretty awful moments and most of those moments led to terrible turnovers that led to easy scores for the Suns. I feel like fatigue was a bit of an issue but that's no excuse for our performance.

The good:
-Despite all the terrible plays we never really let the Suns take control of the game. They got close and took the lead a few times but we always answered back and it never really seemed like we were going to blow this one.

-Kawhi - Definitely not his best game but it was a good one. He made some tough shots, shot the ball effectively, continued to show off his ability as a play maker and he was hustling like a madman (that steal and score after his miss was amazing) and he definitely responded positively after Pop's yanked him early, I can't recall ever seeing him get that upset about being pulled.

-Dedmon - Start this guy already. Excellent effort for him tonight.

-Gasol - Great all around game from him. Scored effectively, made some nice passes and showed some serious leadership in that second half. This is what we need from him, good on ya Pau keep it up.

-Anderson - I might be the only one to say this but I loved what he gave us last night. Didn't play a lot but had a huge impact. That half court lob pass was unreal, he actually scored effectively and confidently and he played some very very very impressive defense (I really do love what gives us on defense).

The bad:
-Turnovers - I don't know if it was just us playing down to our opponents or if it was fatigue but a lot of those plays were just unacceptable either way.

-LMA - had a good 4th quarter but was almost invisible for the other 3 quarters. Played some terrible defense as well, didn't fight through screens and didn't always box out.

[Phreak50]

How was the stat they mentioned before the tip, Gasol leading the league in jump shot percentage.

That is awesome and honestly with that and his far superior post game, he is doing everything we wanted Aldridge to do.