Game Day: Suns (1-1) @ Warriors (2-1), Mon 10/22/18

[Superbone]

Time: 7:30 pm AZ (7:30 pm PT / 10:30 pm ET)
Place: ORACLE Arena, Oakland, CA
TV: FSAZ/NBALP

Welp, another learning experience is in store as the Suns travel to Oakland to play the defending champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors have a 15 game winning streak over the Suns which is their longest winning streak against a single opponent in franchise history. The last time the Suns beat the Warriors was Kerr's sixth game as GSW coach back on November 9th, 2014. It was Kerr's first loss as the Warriors' coach.

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

[JeremyG]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

[UglyTruth]

I wonder if Kerr takes the night off and lets the players coach for this one again?

[Flagrant Fowl]

I have a feeling that we're gonna get smoked. Don't think that the W's forgot about that pre-season loss to the Suns just a couple of weeks ago.

[Xylus]

The Warriors aren't very good offensively or defensively, and they lack star power. The Suns should take this one easily.

[ShelC]

Ws coming off a tough road loss last night. They could be tired or looking for revenge. Again, interested to see how Ayton fares with a smaller, faster team. Can he stay on the court? Will we look for mismatches or try and shoot it out with the Ws?

[carey]

Go Snus! I think we lose but it won't be a blow out. Hope to see more playing time for Bridges tonight. Also, more Bender and less Ryno.

[Split T]

Agree on Bridges. Pass on Bender. I've seen enough. If we're cutting Anderson's minutes, they should go to our 4 deep SF rotation

[SDC]

warriors not that invincible lately, OTOH... it's at Oracle

[In2ition]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

[SDC]

experiment this starting lineup
booker at point
mikal at sg
ariza
josh jackson at 4
ayton

[Split T]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

21 divided by two games is 10.5

[Xylus]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

It's avg plus/minus per game, not accumulated plus/minus.

+0 in Dallas game
+21 in Denver game

+21 overall divided by 2 games = +10.5

[O_Gardino]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

Coachkov destroyed his per game averages in game one.

[In2ition]

experiment this starting lineup
booker at point
mikal at sg
ariza
josh jackson at 4
ayton

The only problem that I have is that I think having Booker at pg diminishes his value. Denver ended up trapping him as soon as he got the ball 30 ft from the rim and it was factor in his 6 turnovers, many of which were pretty bad looking.

I'm ok with making Bridges earn his minutes, and it's possible that Igor just put him in the best position where he was going against 2nd stringers and Jokic out of the game when he played him. This may have been done to give him confidence going forward. I'm with everyone else, Mikal was killing it in the Denver game and was a factor on both ends of the floor in both of the runs that the Suns made to get back into the game. I wanted him to play more and perhaps the Suns could have put themselves in position to win it. Unfortunately, the Suns had too many other things happening in the negative to probably negate them all.

[Xylus]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

Coachkov destroyed his per game averages in game one.

Jalen Rose criticized Igor in the post-game show for doing that to Mikal in his debut.

[SDC]

experiment this starting lineup
booker at point
mikal at sg
ariza
josh jackson at 4
ayton

The only problem that I have is that I think having Booker at pg diminishes his value. Denver ended up trapping him as soon as he got the ball 30 ft from the rim and it was factor in his 6 turnovers, many of which were pretty bad looking.

I'm ok with making Bridges earn his minutes, and it's possible that Igor just put him in the best position where he was going against 2nd stringers and Jokic out of the game when he played him. This may have been done to give him confidence going forward. I'm with everyone else, Mikal was killing it in the Denver game and was a factor on both ends of the floor in both of the runs that the Suns made to get back into the game. I wanted him to play more and perhaps the Suns could have put themselves in position to win it. Unfortunately, the Suns had too many other things happening in the negative to probably negate them all.

suns have two ballhandlers in that lineup: booker and jackson

if booker gets doubled, let jackson be the point forward.

ariza and bridges provide 3 and D

[In2ition]

Current Rookie Leaders in Plus/Minus:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander +11.0
2. Mikal Bridges +10.5
3. Deandre Ayton +10.0

That seems low for Mikal. I know he only played about 20 seconds in the Dallas game, but he put up a +21 in the Denver game. How did he get such a low number?

Coachkov destroyed his per game averages in game one.

Yeah, that's it. Those 11 seconds were ridiculous. Like Jaylen Rose said, "Igor did the rookie dirty giving him all zeros in his first game."(or something like that)

[TOO]

Go Snus! I think we lose but it won't be a blow out. Hope to see more playing time for Bridges tonight. Also, more Bender and less Ryno.

You had me til the Bender part. Hard pass, he sucks.

[Shabazz]

Live look at me on Bender Island: