Game Day: Suns (51-12) @ Bucks (39-25), Sunday 3/6/2022

[ShelC]

Suns played well enough, but Bucks money players (namely, Middleton) hit the accelerator when needed.

Our clutch game was bad, bad. Payne with turnover, Bridges with a turnover and a timid 3 point attempt. Defense in the last few minutes on Middleton was sub par.

Yea in a close game against one of the best teams, it's always down to a few possessions in the closing minutes. Payne's had a few bad plays down the stretch recently which he acknowledged in the postgame presser. But they'll make him better.

[BlaCkAdDa]

MAX AYTON AND SHAMET NOW!!!

DA has 25 points and 7 boards here near the end of the 3rd quarter. He's shooting 12-17 and it feels like everything he puts up goes in. Why does he play like this against the Bucks but barely shows up against the lowly Knicks

He was thinking about this matcup during the knocks game
We know Ayton can step up
He ain't gonna play at peak every game and he's been a bit off lately without CP3 on his ass

[carey]

Yea in a close game against one of the best teams, it's always down to a few possessions in the closing minutes. Payne's had a few bad plays down the stretch recently which he acknowledged in the postgame presser. But they'll make him better.

How, exactly? Not exactly new.

[Split T]

Payne was good tonight…he’s the only guy we have that really puts pressure on the rim off the dribble. He may have had a few blown plays down the stretch but that’s not something we’re going to ask him to do regularly. He had 23/8 on 9/19 shooting. He won’t be in the game at the end of close games in the playoffs.

[ShelC]

He's getting experience in late game situations he wouldn't normally be getting if CP were available. It's one thing to do it against backups in the middle of the game, another to go against All-NBA types in the final minutes of a close game. I think his playmaking's been great these last few games, in general. Never know when that'll come in handy later.

[ShelC]

[SunsRIt]

I don’t feel too bad about this loss. We were only missing 3 of our top 6 players.

[Superbone]

I still expect to lose this game but this energy and effort is all you can ask for here. Love this team!

Hope Mikal can bring something offensively in the second half. We’re gonna need it.

Yep, no complaints here. We gave the nearly full-strength Bucks all they could handle. Just couldn’t quite finish it. Bucks have to be worried that this team missing their stars played them so well.

[Mori Chu]

I don’t feel too bad about this loss. We were only missing 3 of our top 6 players.

+1. The Bucks should be worried that they were barely able to hold us off despite our two best players (and 6th man) being out. See you in the Finals, guys. If you manage to make it back to meet us there.

[Nodack]

I was proud of the team on this loss. I didn’t think it would be as close as it was. Like you guys said. The Bucks should be worried.

[Split T]

Want to add that it was very nice to see Shamet have a good game. Hopefully it gives him confidence and we see the Shamet we were expecting all season going forward.

[bajanguy008]

Really great effort from the guys

The question was Can our undermanned squad hang with them and the answer was a resounding Yes. Managing to out execute them in the clutch would have been quite some statement but definitely nothing to hang the head about.

Individually, man I said it pregame. Whenever there's a feature story about lil Dre, daddy comes out to play lol. Unfortunate he gave up those two offensive rebounds late because he played quite the game.

Cam P, just like against NYK he didn't make the plays down the stretch but to be fair most of his 2nd half against the Knicks was not good but he was much more solid last night. Literally just a couple plays but again there's levels to it and overall in this small sample size I still feel his pace n decision making has been better.

Was worried about Mikal tbh, similar to Pelicans game he was struggling with on ball pressure but he responded well in the 2nd half. As others have said Middleton does have his number and Bobster made a fair point about rebounding. I felt like he was definitely more active to start the season. It wasn't even getting it himself but he was showing this tendency to use his length and tip them to others but yea really haven't seen him on the boards much. Finally, with the added attention he's drawing he did have another 6 assist game

[bajanguy008]

The "new" guys

It's the simple truth that skills mean nothing without confidence. So maybe that's all it is with Landry, there's been two main opinions about him.... He's trash He's in his own head
So let's see if he's turning the corner with the added reps. To me, he felt like he wasn't rushing his shot y'day which I would tend to think means he wasn't pressing like usual. Enough psychoanalysis lol, look forward to this week's games especially with Book back when he will be asked to be effective in his bench role.

Holiday says he keeps trying to learn the offense as he goes along and think he did his thing. His floaters off the PnR seem to be very effective and his D is good

Torrey been a lil all over the place tbh. He's not doing the one man fast breaks from last season lol but he surely a little quicker with the trigger. He used to take his time on those corner 3s as teams would choose to rotate off him but definitely more catch and shoot 3s now which isn't doing his FG% any favours. Maybe that all gets reigned in later

I felt Biz was great, JaVale did alright too (no crazy 1v1 adventures)

[bajanguy008]

The Jrue discussion is so interesting to me.
I think we're all noticing it at the same time having battled these guys in the Finals but Jrue is definitely reffed off reputation.

Commentators, coaches all say the same thing - his strength, toughness and so on but I honestly think because he's not demonstrative, yapping alot in your face like (T'wolves short dude, Tucker) and so on it's like his tactics don't get everyone's attention. I don't know to describe it man but his demeanor clearly gets him the benefit of the doubt.

He is low-key still using his arm strength to alter player movement which is the definition of hand checking that the league has removed but oh well.
Then on offense I used to be like man Jrue is strong but some of his post ups he overdoes the shoulder dip and nothing is ever called. Book for example gets called often when he does that bully ball stuff.

[bajanguy008]

[wpmiller42]

With regards to our rebounding struggles lately, I've been wondering a couple things:

1. Is it really all on Ayton? He's been struggling on the boards, and maybe his rebounding is a really key, maybe overlooked, part of our success. Or is this a team thing and everyone is struggling right now. Or maybe CP3 and Booker are bigger parts of the rebounding part of our game.

2. Are teams doing something different against us that have caused the rebounding struggles? Is there some scheme that other teams are employing to try and out-rebound us?

I'm actually not sure of the answers to these questions, but I thought maybe there's an advanced stat out there that someone knows about that might shed some light.

[bajanguy008]

I don't care how the media narrated the game but I knew we blew them out in Phoenix in the "this will mean more to the Suns" game and for sure those guys wanted some get back last night



It was obvious too, benches standing for like the last 5mins of the game. Physicality ramped up, all that to get over the line without some of our key guys

[wpmiller42]

I don't care how the media narrated the game but I knew we blew them out in Phoenix in the "this will mean more to the Suns" game and for sure those guys wanted some get back last night



It was obvious too, benches standing for like the last 5mins of the game. Physicality ramped up, all that to get over the line without some of our key guys

In fairness, when the reporter asked Middleton that question, I thought the must win comment was more about their own position in the Eastern Conference standings. But yeah, totally agree that the media is mischaracterizing the results of this game.

[ShelC]

Biyombo's a better matchup against Giannis because he can better hold his ground when Giannis tries to bull his way to the basket. He can't go thru Biz the way he can DA and McGee. Just a stronger, thicker player with a lower base/center of gravity.

[Indy]

With regards to our rebounding struggles lately, I've been wondering a couple things:

1. Is it really all on Ayton? He's been struggling on the boards, and maybe his rebounding is a really key, maybe overlooked, part of our success. Or is this a team thing and everyone is struggling right now. Or maybe CP3 and Booker are bigger parts of the rebounding part of our game.

2. Are teams doing something different against us that have caused the rebounding struggles? Is there some scheme that other teams are employing to try and out-rebound us?

I'm actually not sure of the answers to these questions, but I thought maybe there's an advanced stat out there that someone knows about that might shed some light.

Maybe not *all*, but how in the hell does a guy with his size and athleticism have 7 straight games of less than 10 boards? He should be able to walk into 10 boards each night. Since coming back from his injury, he is only averaging 8.2 boards a game. That is 20% below his *career* averages. He isn't focused