Other Playoff Series

[bwoolf2]

Now the Mavs can't make 3s. Super

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Warriors pace too much for Mavs. Shots are coming at a much quicker pace legs are also a little more tired. They will have a game where they make them but it might only be 1. Suns played at mavs pace let them dictate the game, Warriors won't allow that.

[sunskerr]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

[bwoolf2]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

We would have gotten boat raced by warriors. Last month of season we were under. 500 as a team ans that's what we looked like in the playoffs. Warriors gonna expose mavs team they aren't that good.

[KLEON]

If Ayton is a max player Looney must be a super max player

[sunskerr]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

We would have gotten boat raced by warriors. Last month of season we were under. 500 as a team ans that's what we looked like in the playoffs. Warriors gonna expose mavs team they aren't that good.

Yeah we know the signs were there since the end of the season. But its just sad how it ended.

[spanishninja]

Now the Mavs can't make 3s. Super

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well, maybe the warriors close out on them shooters.

[Gorilla Warfare]

Warriors perimeter defense is much better than ours. I will at least feel a small amount of satisfaction watching the Mavs die by the 3 for 4 straight games and get swept.

[thamadkant]

If Ayton is a max player Looney must be a super max player

Game 1: Ayton 24/11 vs Looney 5/6... suns win.

Game 2: Ayton 23/6 vs Looney 2/6... suns lose.

Game 3: Ayton 18/7 vs Looney 8/10... suns lose.

Game 4: Ayton 16/16 vs Looney 2/5... suns win.


If Looney is a super max player then Ayton is super super max player.

[IamBBAnalysis]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

We would have gotten boat raced by warriors. Last month of season we were under. 500 as a team ans that's what we looked like in the playoffs. Warriors gonna expose mavs team they aren't that good.

That is a short-sighted way of thinking. Sure, the Suns the way they were playing would have gotten crushed but the Suns team we saw all year would not have. The Suns just...fell apart in so many ways. Also, the Suns matchup way better with the Warriors than the Mavs.

[IamBBAnalysis]

https://fb.watch/d2JEqXcpQU/

Watching this is so annoying, Doncic mocking and taunting like he usually does is just infuriating so I will be rooting against him the rest of the way.

It'll be interesting to see Draymond and Luka go at it against each other, The GP2 injury could be huge for GSW because that's another strong defender that could have given meaningful minutes guarding either Luka or Brunson.

Those antics didn't seem to bother the Suns as they laid down and got beat down by 60 in the last two games of the series. I have no bad feelings for Doncic or Dallas. When a team quits, it's more on them than anything else.

Yeah, at this point there is no reason for me not to root for Dallas. Firstly, they beat us so it's a better look for us. But very tired of all the Warriors, Celtics and Heat championships anyway. Why pull for any of those guys?

Luka can be fun to watch when he's not playing against you.

I'm the opposite...I prefer everyone to realize how bad the Suns were playing, as opposed to how good the Mavs were. Nothing special about the Mavs in the least. The Suns were just a joke.

[IamBBAnalysis]

GSW no chance against Luka. They lost regular season 1-3 and Mavs much better team last half of the season.

Dude...Dallas didn't even look very good against the Suns. What exactly did they do? Play solid? That's true. Actual talent? No, not really. Just Luka and the fact that the Suns could not even stay in front of a slow-footed guy or close out on shooters at all.

[IamBBAnalysis]

Now the Mavs can't make 3s. Super

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You really thought the Mavs had much to do with that series? It was all about how bad the Suns were...more than any series I have seen in recent years (taking into account talent vs talent).

[bwoolf2]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

We would have gotten boat raced by warriors. Last month of season we were under. 500 as a team ans that's what we looked like in the playoffs. Warriors gonna expose mavs team they aren't that good.

That is a short-sighted way of thinking. Sure, the Suns the way they were playing would have gotten crushed but the Suns team we saw all year would not have. The Suns just...fell apart in so many ways. Also, the Suns matchup way better with the Warriors than the Mavs.

How is it short term it was 2 months of basketball. They put all their eggs into regular season wins

[PittsburghSuns]

Wonder where Lukas little grin is at tonight? I never had a problem with the Mavs and generally like them better than GSW but Luka was such a punk I hope he gets swept and embarrassed. He’s not playing a 37 year old dinosaur or a team that completely quit on one another for whatever reason anymore.

[bwoolf2]

GSW no chance against Luka. They lost regular season 1-3 and Mavs much better team last half of the season.

Dude...Dallas didn't even look very good against the Suns. What exactly did they do? Play solid? That's true. Actual talent? No, not really. Just Luka and the fact that the Suns could not even stay in front of a slow-footed guy or close out on shooters at all.

Agreed.

We need to learn what the Suns learned the regular season means very little outside of developing guys and getting in the playoffs.

[lilfishi22]

Who was guarding Luka for the most part?

[sunsbg]

Who was guarding Luka for the most part?

Wiggins, but Luka forced switches on Looney, who did just fine on him. They played better D than Mikal + DA.

[lilfishi22]

Who was guarding Luka for the most part?

Wiggins, but Luka forced switches on Looney, who did just fine on him. They played better D than Mikal + DA.

I wasn't a fan of Mikal on Luka when we played straight up D in the first two games. Luka was just too big, too strong and more importantly, too skilled of a player for Mikal to defend. I thought the Crowder did a better job because he had to strength and savvy to play straight up on Luka and his strength is a better asset than the lateral quickness of Mikal to defend a relatively slow player in Luka. Now that the stats are out, it shows that exactly. Also unsurprisingly, CP3 got destroyed which matched the eye test. DA did a pretty damn good job on Luka and Luka actually went 6 for 21 when defended by DA on 3s. So the highlights of DA getting pulled out to the perimeter and scored on from the 3 needs to be put into context. Even Booker did fairly well on the Luka switches.

The major problem really isn't just that we stuck a skinny and light Mikal on Luka, it's that we left Mikal to get torched by Luka again and again and we didn't do enough to change things up defensively. Before the series started, I told my mate who's a big Mavs fan that I thought we had the best line up of defensive wings to make it a challenge for Luka. IMO no team had a better line up of long, disciplined and defensive minded wings to throw at Luka. The best way to defend an elite scorer like Luka if you didn't have that defensive stopper specific for that scorer is to keep changing up the defense, keep rotating the defenders he's seeing and don't let him get comfortable with any one defender....And that's exactly what we let him do.


Luka when defended by Mikal:
Minutes: 40.31
Partial possessions: 186.6
Pts scored: 45
Team pts scored: 187
Assists: 12
Turnovers: 9
FGA: 31
FG%: 58.1%

Luka when defended by Crowder:
Minutes: 11.28
Partial possessions: 54.2
Pts scored: 11
Team pts scored: 66
Assists: 5
Turnovers: 1
FGA: 11
FG%: 36.4%

Luka when defended by CamJo:
Minutes: 9.06
Partial possessions: 38.8
Pts scored: 43
Team pts scored: 65
Assists: 4
Turnovers: 4
FGA: 34
FG%: 47.1%

Luka when defended by DA:
Minutes: 13.17
Partial possessions: 63.6
Pts scored: 46
Team pts scored: 110
Assists: 15
Turnovers: 3
FGA: 43
FG%: 41.9%

(for lulz) Luka when defended by CP3:
Minutes: 12.11
Partial possessions: 48.9
Pts scored: 29
Team pts scored: 65
Assists: 2
Turnovers: 2
FGA: 20
FG%: 55.0%

Luka when defended by Booker:
Minutes: 6.38
Partial possessions: 33
Pts scored: 13
Team pts scored: 37
Assists: 2
Turnovers: 0
FGA: 14
FG%: 42.9%

[bwgood77]

We just imploded against the Mavs. Didn't even give ourselves a chance to compete in games 6 and 7. Really could have been our year but whatever happened, happened.

We would have gotten boat raced by warriors. Last month of season we were under. 500 as a team ans that's what we looked like in the playoffs. Warriors gonna expose mavs team they aren't that good.

Why do you say this? Was it you earlier that said we were like 9-10 or 10-9 in the last 20 games?

I looked at that afterwards and we had a 9 game winning streak from March 13-March 30th then we had that horrible game against the Memphis reserves and finished 2-4, I think resting guys in 2 of those games.

So from March 13-April 10th we were 11-4 but I think clinched sometime in that last bad streak, maybe before we went 2-3 at the end.

If you go back a few games further, we had 2 losses in 4 games between March 6-12 so from March 6-end of season we were 13-6.

Or go back 4 games further we were 2-2, so that is 15-8. But that was coming off a 9 game winning streak, so we finished 24-8.

But take those last 6 games out and we were 22-4.

Prior to that 9 game streak we had 1 loss, but before that 1 loss, we had an 11 game streak. So we actually went 20-1 at one point.

Anyway, we were 31-9 and finished 33-9 from there, but went 2-4 to end the season...that last 2 weeks or 6 games may have killed momentum given we were 29-5 before that. That's a pretty crazy win pace. Like 6 wins to 1 loss, like a 72 win pace.

But really the worst you can go back is those last 6 games, going 2-4. Going back too much further you run into 3 long winning streaks with.

So we finished 11-4, but the 9 games prior we split, going so that makes it 15-8...that is probably the worst you can go back to, because prior to that we were 19-1 over a 20 game stretch.

We really started to look bad on April 1st with the bad Memphis loss to them without their starters (except Brooks) or Jones...then in the next game we lost by like 20 to the Thunder. We did beat the Lakers and Utah in there but lose to the Clips and Kings (though I think rested in those 2 games).

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/PHO/2022_games.html

[sunsbg]

^^So Mikal was even worse than CP3 defending Luka. Have said it multiple times in the past, but I'm not impressed by his defense on those elite players. Wiggins is skinny as well though a bit taller and he did a great job on Doncic. Also as a DPOY candidate how in the world did Luka had more steals for the series than Mikal.