Western Conference | Round 1 | (1) Phoenix Suns VS. (8) New Orleans Pelicans (PHX 3-2)

[Hsker4Life]

My take? I didn't have a take until you two started with ridiculous one off statements.

Losing to one team doesn't mean your run wouldn't have happened, it means you lost to one team. Worse teams beat better teams for a host of reasons, one of which is because of matchups. Your original statement wasn't that teams lose due to a lack of focus it was that having an "Easier" 1st round would cause them to lose focus.

Again, not sure how my original post sparked this as I said nothing controversial. Not going to keep back and forth with you two

Calm down. My initial reply was to disagree with your take. The poster had a pretty simple logic - if you can't beat a lesser opponent, most likely you won't beat a better opponent, much less win a title. You said it doesn't make sense when it does. Lesser teams can beat you in a single game, but rarely in a series. In every sport players/teams improve when going against better opposition. Nothing ridiculous about this take as well. You made a big deal out of this.

Im perfectly calm. And I didn't make anything a big deal. I made a simple comment. Made no mention of the Suns losing or being worse than the Pelicans. Both of you inferred something that wasn't there.

I'll just leave it here. There's no debate to be had here.

You simply did not read my post if you think I inferred anything about your takes ITT.

[MTJazzv3]

Man.. some of you are delusional

This series would goto 5 games AT MOST for the Suns.

The Suns have a 28 games lead on NO.

Regular season ain't a fluke.

Tell that to the Jazz lol!

[IamBBAnalysis]

I think this one goes six, the Suns have been so good this year but the Pels matchup well with them.

CJ vs CP
Ingram vs Booker
Valencunias vs Ayton
Jones vs Bridges

That’s your marquee matchup

CJ = CP (though CP likely will have more impact exposing Valanciunas D on the perimeter)
Ingram > Bridges (Mikal scores 8 less points on 7 less shots, so not that big of a difference)
Valencunias < Ayton (if Ayton shows same play as in last playoffs clearly a Suns advantage)
Jones << Booker

Ingram is not better than Bridges. That's subjective but what Bridges does is different than what Ingram does.

[SunsWinSunsWin]

I think this one goes six, the Suns have been so good this year but the Pels matchup well with them.

CJ vs CP
Ingram vs Booker
Valencunias vs Ayton
Jones vs Bridges

That’s your marquee matchup

CJ = CP (though CP likely will have more impact exposing Valanciunas D on the perimeter)
Ingram > Bridges (Mikal scores 8 less points on 7 less shots, so not that big of a difference)
Valencunias < Ayton (if Ayton shows same play as in last playoffs clearly a Suns advantage)
Jones << Booker

CJ is a fine player but he's not on CPs level. Paul will likely average 12+ assists and hit key buckets/make key plays for the Suns if there is any clutch time.

Ingram over Bridges? Are you insane? Book has more 40+ games in NO than Ingram.

JV is a solid player when he's on. Still would rather have DA however he needs to show up consistently. Luckily, Suns also have McGee who has been one of the best off-season acquisitions in the league.

Herb Jones is a nice player. I like watching him play. Book is likely to average 30+ this series.

[bwgood77]

Ya know, it just hit me that the Suns locked up the #1 seed weeks ago but were the very last team to know who their opponent is and have the least time to prepare. One of the weird effects of the play-in format.

Funny I mentioned that on the Suns board...that's a disadvantage of the final play in. The Pelicans got that last spot late Friday and the Suns had the best record but will have less than 48 hours to prepare when all the 3-6 seeds had almost a week and the 2 seeds had like 3-4 days.

[sunsbg]

I think this one goes six, the Suns have been so good this year but the Pels matchup well with them.

CJ vs CP
Ingram vs Booker
Valencunias vs Ayton
Jones vs Bridges

That’s your marquee matchup

CJ = CP (though CP likely will have more impact exposing Valanciunas D on the perimeter)
Ingram > Bridges (Mikal scores 8 less points on 7 less shots, so not that big of a difference)
Valencunias < Ayton (if Ayton shows same play as in last playoffs clearly a Suns advantage)
Jones << Booker

CJ is a fine player but he's not on CPs level. Paul will likely average 12+ assists and hit key buckets/make key plays for the Suns if there is any clutch time.

Ingram over Bridges? Are you insane? Book has more 40+ games in NO than Ingram.

JV is a solid player when he's on. Still would rather have DA however he needs to show up consistently. Luckily, Suns also have McGee who has been one of the best off-season acquisitions in the league.

Herb Jones is a nice player. I like watching him play. Book is likely to average 30+ this series.

3rd person in this thread unable to accept disagreement or another opinion. What's wrong with people these days ?

I said CP3 will likely have more impact, but according to many we struggle with smaller guards like CJ so I can see him having a good series. Ingram had pretty good play-in and being a 1st option rather than 4th on O will most likely put better numbers than Mikal. What Suns need in this series is to contain one of these two.

Apparently you think Suns will win every matchup, so it should be 4 easy wins. I hope you're right. We'll see.

[PaKwAn]

3 point shooting(defending and making it), pick n roll and cp3 dancing with our bigs would be our biggest problems. I see it going 5 games the most.

[Eric Millegan]

Ya know, it just hit me that the Suns locked up the #1 seed weeks ago but were the very last team to know who their opponent is and have the least time to prepare. One of the weird effects of the play-in format.

Pelicans have had months to prepare. They have known all this time that if they made the playoffs, they’d be playing the Suns.

[thamadkant]

Pelicans starter matchup well with Suns starters. Since Suns bench has looked mediocre in the last month, I see Pelicans winning a couple of games. But ultimately, Suns balance system and poise (hopefully) gets them through.

[BuddyBuckets]

I hope the Pels play with a chip on their shoulder and make the Suns work hard for it. Going to root for my team but the Suns are a well coached, well rounded, well polished team.

[cdubbz]

Pelicans should just list Zion as game time decision to have the Suns poop their pants.

How awesome would it be for them to let Zion play in the playoffs?! Dude has been rehabbing for the entire season.

[G R E Y]

But unless Zion had been practicing with the team it may throw off their chemistry and rhythm. It takes a while to incorporate a player back in, especially a dominant scorer and with different space requirements with him and BI on the court together.

It would be fun to see him back as Zion is such a unique entity and could be an X factor if healthy but it would take both him and the Pels some time to get into game shape and rhythm together.

[lonea]

LOL what?

You think Zion is the second coming of MJ or something?

Pelicans should just list Zion as game time decision to have the Suns poop their pants.

[sunsbg]

LOL what?

You think Zion is the second coming of MJ or something?

Pelicans should just list Zion as game time decision to have the Suns poop their pants.

Just some Warriors overconfident guy after beating Jokic and nobodies.

[Beetlejuice]

A suns fan(s) here think that CP3= CJ. Rewrote this several times because i do not know if i care if i`m banned . But that there is disrespect.

[sunsbg]

Ya know, it just hit me that the Suns locked up the #1 seed weeks ago but were the very last team to know who their opponent is and have the least time to prepare. One of the weird effects of the play-in format.

Funny I mentioned that on the Suns board...that's a disadvantage of the final play in. The Pelicans got that last spot late Friday and the Suns had the best record but will have less than 48 hours to prepare when all the 3-6 seeds had almost a week and the 2 seeds had like 3-4 days.

Just reading on the other thread how Hawks are tired while Heat rested confirms for me Nr1 seed is in no way in a disadvantage in addition to what I said above that Suns actually had more time to prepare than the Pelicans. Though your argument appears to be they are in disadvantage compared to other top seeds, which honestly doesn't matter much. Actually 2nd seed opponent had more time to rest and we saw how that reflected on Grizz - Wolves game.

[sunsbg]

A suns fan(s) here think that CP3= CJ. Rewrote this several times because i do not know if i care if i`m banned . But that there is disrespect.

It's probably only me, though I said CP3 will most likely have a bigger impact. Let's face it, CP3 is getting older, while CJ is still 30yo. CP3 won't give his all in 1st round series if not necessary, so I can see CJ putting more eye-catching stats. Same for Ingram being 1st option vs Mikal 4th on offense. I still had to give some credit to the Pelicans. This poll is a bit unfair (though there are two votes for Pels in 4 now).

[cdubbz]

LOL what?

You think Zion is the second coming of MJ or something?

Pelicans should just list Zion as game time decision to have the Suns poop their pants.

Just some Warriors overconfident guy after beating Jokic and nobodies.

Lol whole lot of assuming going on here.

No I don't think Zion is second coming of MJ
But imagine having a gameplay and all of a sudden having to factor in Zion even if it were limited minutes.

I am not overconfident in Warriors at all.

[sunsbg]

LOL what?

You think Zion is the second coming of MJ or something?

Just some Warriors overconfident guy after beating Jokic and nobodies.

Lol whole lot of assuming going on here.

No I don't think Zion is second coming of MJ
But imagine having a gameplay and all of a sudden having to factor in Zion even if it were limited minutes.

I am not overconfident in Warriors at all.

It's lesser teams pooping their pants playing the Suns at this point until proven wrong.

[Funcrusher]

LOL what?

You think Zion is the second coming of MJ or something?

Pelicans should just list Zion as game time decision to have the Suns poop their pants.

what a weird thing to say? Stay humble phx fans, that's all i have to add to the discussion