Game 15: Denver Nuggets (8-7) @ Phoenix Suns (8-6) l Saturday l 7:00pm l FSNAZ

[Jsbath]

Gallowey???? What happened with gallowey??? Nader -24. We need point and galllowey at bench

[Adrao]

OKC next. We can let this sting for a full 4 days. Yay

Then GSW and back to back with Dallas. If Booker doesn't return, we're in some serious trouble.

Do you really missed Booker tonight?

[Adrao]

Nader is a hustle guy maybe that's why Monty loves playing him heavy minutes. Tonight he played 29 min that's more than anyone on our bench and 5 min less than Cam.

IMO this is absurd, he doesn't deserve so much time on court. Why isn't Galloway playing more minutes?

[RedIndian]

Two tough, frustrating losses, but the one yesterday hurt more. Today was just a tough tough game without Booker and they needed an insane buzzer beater from Murray to break our backs.

On reflection, I wouldn't to be too disheartened. The Nuggets are a battle-hardened playoff team with 2 stars in their absolute prime. Great rotation pieces and depth too with the likes of Harris, Millsap, Green, Morris, Barton and MPJ. I think most people would have had them as a lock for HCA in the West, and if we end up competing with them for the 4th seed by the end of the season, we'll have done well.

The positive things to take away:

- Ayton looks like he's breaking out. Marked increase in aggression and decision-making on offense over 5 games now. His defense is legitimately good. Now he's unlikely to ever be DPOY worthy, but more and more he's a defender I trust to constantly play hard and smart.

- Smith is back, and showed some nice signs. I look forward to a Saric-Smith combo off the bench.

- I don't think Cam works that well with the starting unit. I think the Saric-Cam-Payne chemistry off the bench was very good, and I'd revert to that with Crowder back in the starting line-up. On that note, Crowder's team defense is very very good.

My one long-term concern is the lack of a third shot-creator. Feel like there's just too much pressure on Booker and Paul to create. The Saric-Cam-Payne combination works well giving us points off the bench when we're pushing the pace; but in a half-court set up, I think we really need to find a third guy who can score and create for himself and others. Carter's offense has been horrid. Galloway is a flamethower, but he's not really a creator. This is where I wish we'd drafted Haliburton.

[sunsbg]

Certainly leading the league in lost overtimes now.

Silver lining - Ayton was outplaying a MVP candidate most of the time in those two games.

[Saberestar]

Hopefully Nader is out of the rotation after this game, I have seen enough from him.

I would understand to play him a few minutes here or there in the first half of any game as a energy guy, but he can not play in crunch time.

He plays like he is on drugs or something, and that is OK if the game is not on the line.

Monty had Galloway and Jalen Smith as a better options on the bench. Smith lost a couple of rebounds against J. Green, but other than that he played solid minutes.

[irish22022]

It took a missed 2/3 FTs from a scrub ass player and a prayer 3 from murray. Not a bad game. Ayton looks incredible, but I worry about his increased production happening when we're losing. I feel like all his best games are games where we lose. Not a good trend.

[sunsbg]

It took a missed 2/3 FTs from a scrub ass player and a prayer 3 from murray. Not a bad game. Ayton looks incredible, but I worry about his increased production happening when we're losing. I feel like all his best games are games where we lose. Not a good trend.

If not for Ayton's increased level of play with the poor 3pt shooting(as teams figured out how they play) those games won't go to overtime. Ayton's play somewhat compensated for the poor 3pt shooting and lack of bench compared to the first games. Players may still get used to Ayton being more involved in the offense, but that's not his problem. It's always good to have a plan B and go inside or outside which good teams like Denver do.

[Crives]

Just hope everyone is healthy at this point. Extremely frustrating back to back. Refs need to be better, these late game calls have been awful. Always feels like the league wants to see phx fail.

[cberry78]

Two tough, frustrating losses, but the one yesterday hurt more. Today was just a tough tough game without Booker and they needed an insane buzzer beater from Murray to break our backs.

...

My one long-term concern is the lack of a third shot-creator. Feel like there's just too much pressure on Booker and Paul to create. The Saric-Cam-Payne combination works well giving us points off the bench when we're pushing the pace; but in a half-court set up, I think we really need to find a third guy who can score and create for himself and others. Carter's offense has been horrid. Galloway is a flamethower, but he's not really a creator. This is where I wish we'd drafted Haliburton.

We actually have 4 legitimate playmakers on this team. As you mentioned, we have CP3 and Booker, but we also have Payne (who is still working his way back) and we have Saric (who hasn't really been healthy this year between the leg and now COVID [? ]). With the time that other players have missed (a game here, a game there) I doubt the team has even been 100% for more than a game or two. PLUS we missed an entire week of games/practices where the team wasn't even allowed to do anything together. This team needs time to gel, which is going to be sorely short to come by with this abbreviated season.

Everything else you said I agree with 100%, but this team REALLY needs to be at 100% for a significant amount of time to really judge who we are.

[lonea]

Galloway is a liability on defense, especially facing a big team like Denver.

Nader is a hustle guy maybe that's why Monty loves playing him heavy minutes. Tonight he played 29 min that's more than anyone on our bench and 5 min less than Cam.

IMO this is absurd, he doesn't deserve so much time on court. Why isn't Galloway playing more minutes?

[lonea]

Not sure why ppl is **** on Monty this game.

Denver tied it up with a buzzer beater off balance 3 pt.

[Maze]

Ayton had an alright game.I only say alright because he played pretty good defense on Jokic.Other than that, he started out like a Tiger ready to pounce before quickly reverting back to his old self.Had a great first 7-8 mins to start the game, but then he turned back into Alex Len on offense the rest of the way.

[bwgood77]

Hopefully Nader is out of the rotation after this game, I have seen enough from him.

I would understand to play him a few minutes here or there in the first half of any game as a energy guy, but he can not play in crunch time.

He plays like he is on drugs or something, and that is OK if the game is not on the line.

Monty had Galloway and Jalen Smith as a better options on the bench. Smith lost a couple of rebounds against J. Green, but other than that he played solid minutes.

Yeah, if I was to blame Monty for this game it would be on the rotations..what the hell did we sign Galloway and Moore for if they are not going to play? I know Moore didn't look good in the preseason but that was because they played him at PG..had they played Galloway at PG and Moore at the 2 we probably would have though Galloway looked bad.

These guys are both solid vets who can play in crunch time if absolutely needed..at least moreso than Nader. It seems like Monty decides rotations/minutes prior to the game and doesn't alter regardless of how things are going.

Anyway, of course the other way Monty maybe lost the game is not intentionally fouling at the end of regulation and given them 2 free throws when up by 3.

[bwgood77]

It took a missed 2/3 FTs from a scrub ass player and a prayer 3 from murray. Not a bad game. Ayton looks incredible, but I worry about his increased production happening when we're losing. I feel like all his best games are games where we lose. Not a good trend.

What does Ayton playing well have to do with Murray hitting a prayer or Nader missing free throws? If Ayton doesn't foul out there is a good chance we win...especially if Cam doesn't get hurt either.

His best game was in the Rockets in a win. He largely kept us in the other games...against good teams..especially the Nuggets, a top 3 western conference team. It's not like these are awful losses. Both games could have easily gone either way and we were down like 3 starters at the end.

[bwgood77]

Not sure why ppl is **** on Monty this game.

Denver tied it up with a buzzer beater off balance 3 pt.

I think he's doing a decent job overall. He could have intentionally fouled up by 3 though and given them 2 free throws...of course they could intentionally miss the 2nd but that's a very hard play....and likely worst case is they get a 2 on the rebound..very unlikely they would get a 3.

[lilfishi22]

I'm weirdly optimistic, even with these losses. As others have mentioned, I thought the 1st Denver game hurt more than the last one because I thought we'd get blown away missing Booker but we played well, Ayton is stringing together a number of really good strong performances and I thought the reffing was just horrible, yet we took them to double OT while a bunch of our key players were either out (Booker, Cam) or were playing with 5 fouls/fouled out. I totally get that people don't like optimism after losses because it's a "loser's mentality" but hey we lost, teams good and bad lose games but the key is why did we lose, what did we do well and what can we do better.

Overall, I see more positive than negatives

[Saberestar]

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[suns12345]

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He absolutely did, and it was obvious to see.

Pretty frustrating to lose those two games, which could've gone either way.

But hard to see past the ridiculous 3 point play overturn on booker in the first game and then the similar calls and stupid buzzer beater in the second game.

I dont normally like to blame refs and we certainly could've /should've won both games anyway, but some of that reffing was hard to swallow.

[lilfishi22]

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Well that's....annoying. To be honest, I didn't notice it live.

Regarding the L2M report, what's the green bars about ?