Game 1: Sacramento Kings at Phoenix Suns, Wednesday, Oct 23, 7 PM MST

[BobbieL]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He played great. Exactly how I'd love to see. He would get the ball and face a double team, but he'd make a quick read and see Saric or someone and make that pass...no big time dribble up great pass for an assist....just a good read off a double team, quick pass and make.

These quick decisions with less dribbling are needed....and really keeps everyone else involved and engaged. I hope it continues. I love that he talked about defense after the game too.

Booker should probably average less points than last year as better teammates. But I think he will be more efficient scoring - and yes, he and Ayton need to bring the effort on D.

[Saberestar]

The big momentum swing came with our 2nd unit, with defensive intensity and good shooting from Carter and Tyler, and good rebounding from Kaminsky. I was afraid we would give up the win when Book Saric and Ayton came back and had to stop Hield Bogdan and Fox, but I think we broke their spirit before that happened.

Hield looked like 2 completely different players in each half, Bogdan never managed to get in a groove, and Fox had limited impact due to foul trouble. All these things were mostly conquered through our intensity on the defensive end.

This post is spot on.

Our defense was pretty good.

Hield was amazing in the first half, but he was bad in the second.

Fox had some good moments, but he was in foul trouble and lost rhythm. He never controlled the game.

Bogdanovic was not a factor at all. He played solid minutes with the ball in his hands but he did not play a good game.

Our defense provocated a big part of that.

[Saberestar]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He played great. Exactly how I'd love to see. He would get the ball and face a double team, but he'd make a quick read and see Saric or someone and make that pass...no big time dribble up great pass for an assist....just a good read off a double team, quick pass and make.

These quick decisions with less dribbling are needed....and really keeps everyone else involved and engaged. I hope it continues. I love that he talked about defense after the game too.

Booker should probably average less points than last year as better teammates. But I think he will be more efficient scoring - and yes, he and Ayton need to bring the effort on D.

I think that Booker wants to be in the playoffs and he does not care too much about his numbers. He knows that he is gonna average over 20, that is for sure, but who cares if he averages 22 or 26 ppg (for example).

He has shown that he can score A LOT already. Now he needs to show that his team can win games. He is on a mission.

[GoodBehavior]

Pretty stoked by the win, but it wasn't really impressive.

a. The Kings lost this game rather than the Suns winning

The Kings put up ~35 point or so in the second half because they were completely clueless in their half court execution. Monty outcoached Luke, who to me hasn't proven to be a good coach, despite all the accolades. I don't know what Luke's plan was... throw the rock to Marvin and Buddy and hope for the best? Their poor half court execution led to those countless turnovers. That was pretty much the deciding factor.

b. Rubio, DA, Booker, Oubre did "okay," some stat stuffing in the Q4 for sure

Rubio deserves some praise, but it's kinda overboard. He performed average, missed a lot of shots. The good news is that there's not that many guards in the league that can guard like De'aron did. So he's going to be better going forward.

Fantastic defense from Booker in the second half, but offensively, I thought he struggled until some stat stuffing

DA did fine. No complaints. Him and Rubio are not align 100%. They'll get there though. Show some decent help defense, I think people who concluded that he has bad defense awareness or BBiq are doing it prematurely. With more experience, I can see him being a very good help defender.

Oubre played like an idiot at times but his weak side protection and rebounding were huge. Constant threat in transition. I don't seem him being benched for Bridges any time soon. He's definitely part of the core, for the time being.

C. Saric and three point shooting

This team is playoff-bound if Saric and the starters can start shooting the ball better.

I disagree with point A. The Kings rely heavily on scoring in transition. Last year they were the number one team in fastbreaks. One of Monty's goal this year was to be excellent in transition defense. The Suns were very good last night giving up only 11 fast break points versus over 20 per game for the Kings last year. In the first half the King's were in the game only because Heid went off with his ridiculous shooting in ISO mode. The Kings had a very low number of assists to back this up. If ISO-ball is Walton's game plan we've seen plenty of it via Booker the last few years to know it doesn't work. Really I think you missed the stellar defensive effort put together by the team. The Suns had 13 steal, 9 blocks, and held the Kings to 39% shooting. The Suns won this game as opposed to your thoughts that the King lost it.

That's my point. The Suns didn't do anything spectacular. Getting back on defense is what ever team does. The Kings no longer have WCS, which limits their ability to run. They ran nothing in half court except iso, or it seemed like it. I don't remember much ball movement. They have a center that space the floor, and didn't do anything to take advantage of it. They looked clueless out there, and badly coached.

[Mystical Apples]

Goated

[bwgood77]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He played great. Exactly how I'd love to see. He would get the ball and face a double team, but he'd make a quick read and see Saric or someone and make that pass...no big time dribble up great pass for an assist....just a good read off a double team, quick pass and make.

These quick decisions with less dribbling are needed....and really keeps everyone else involved and engaged. I hope it continues. I love that he talked about defense after the game too.

Booker should probably average less points than last year as better teammates. But I think he will be more efficient scoring - and yes, he and Ayton need to bring the effort on D.

Points don't matter as much as efficiency, ast/to ratio, quick decisions and D. Those things will bring team success which will bring all star possibilities. Scoring 28 ppg and losing wont.

[WeekapaugGroove]

One big difference having a guy like Rubio makes is the other 4 guys run harder in transition and move more in a half court set because they know he can get them the ball.

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[MountaineersSun]

As a WVU and Suns fan I cannot express how happy I am. We look like we have a future again and Carter is going to be a part of it!

[Fo-Real]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He did some stat padding in the 4th quarter, lets be honest.

[Saberestar]

As a WVU and Suns fan I cannot express how happy I am. We look like we have a future again and Carter is going to be a part of it!

Yeah, I think he is gonna be part of our core.

He has better handles that I thought. He is a gamer.

[Saberestar]

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[Mystical Apples]

Suns offensive Drives profile kinda jumps out...

20 total Drives
11 FGA
5 assists
0 turnovers
0 Free Throws

The Drives Total is quite low (as are the 0 Drives FTA). The relative number of assists is quite high too. But most notably, and actually a solid *defensive* metric, is a team’s ratio of Possessions : Failed Drives.

It’s 1 of a handful of stats I’d look at when a team struggles finishing tight games + has poor defensive metrics. If recall correctly Failed Drives Ratio has a stronger correlation with defensive efficiency than almost any traditional defensive metric. Basically, show me a team with a high frequency of Drives + Failed Drives and I’ll show you a terrible defensive team.

Anyways, just a way-too-early observation. It might be a philosophical shift or one of those early season outliers. We’ll know more by mid-November or early December when team defenses stop sucking but either way, a good sign so long as Phoenix can generate offense elsewhere. It’s also what makes those early clock 2-point pull up jumpers palatable, even if PHX should work towards mitigating them in favor of more efficient looks.

[lilfishi22]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He did some stat padding in the 4th quarter, lets be honest.

But none of it was forced or out of offensive rhythm which was my point

[Crives]

How nuts is it that Booker ended up with a great 22/10 statline but not once did it feel like he was forcing it or needed to take over the game. He just kind of played and dropped 10 dimes by the time he dropped 10 buckets

He did some stat padding in the 4th quarter, lets be honest.

But none of it was forced or out of offensive rhythm which was my point

He also only played 31 minutes...

And it felt like the plan was to get Book a bunch of shots in the 4th... only looked like stat padding cause we were up so much.

[lilfishi22]

He did some stat padding in the 4th quarter, lets be honest.

But none of it was forced or out of offensive rhythm which was my point

He also only played 31 minutes...

And it felt like the plan was to get Book a bunch of shots in the 4th... only looked like stat padding cause we were up so much.

Yeah it was technically in garbage time by that point but we were still running the system Monty was running from the beginning and there was no hero ball from Book that we're accustomed to seeing.

[Crives]

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?s=21

Damn..

[lilfishi22]

That sucks to hear but it isn't the worst thing. That would allow him to really watch the guys play and the system being run so by the time he's ready to come back, he should hopefully be able to just slot in and be right in it

[suns12345]

That sucks to hear but it isn't the worst thing. That would allow him to really watch the guys play and the system being run so by the time he's ready to come back, he should hopefully be able to just slot in and be right in it

Yep, and Carter is probably the more established player as backup PG at the moment anyway. Ideally Jerome starts creeping into the rotation in the second half of the season.