Game Day Playoff Edition — WCF, Game 5 — Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns, Monday 6/28/2021

[Danimal]

For all those complaining about the actions of certain clippers players , was there any sign of coach etc highlighting if this in post game press conferences And sticking up for our players. Or are we going to allow the clippers to dictate terms to us? You knew all along this was going to be their method once Leonard was out.

[Gladiator]

The pace needs to be picked up, I agree with that.

Also Paul was not as agressive as he needed to be against that soft zone. We ran High PnR and he could have had a 17 footer every time and passed on it.

Simple. Suns are thinking they won. Clippers fought for their lives.

There probably was a bit of that but I think there may have been a few nerves at play early as well. The stakes (a place in the Finals) were higher than they’d been for most of the Suns. For Paul, he’s been dreaming of Finals his entire career so maybe the moment got to his usually terrific decision making early. A bit like serving for the match in tennis can be really tough even if you’ve controlled things to that point.

Anyway, whatever the reason we don’t have the luxury of being tentative or complacent now. We need to sort our shit out tactically and mentally and take a real do or die attitude into game 6.

[pagielak]

What a let down of a game. Didn't feel right from the start, Clips really started of well and never looked back. Before the game I felt that this was our best chance at finishing this, so now I just don't know how to feel. Obviously I still have hope but that small ball Clips lineup really messed us up tonight.
Time to find some answers and getting a right mindset for game 6.

Go Suns!

[ShelC]

[ShelC]

They smacked us early and often in the 1st qtr. We did a piss poor job adjusting to Morris posting up Book. Need to handle that switch better and/or send a double - which is not ideal for a player like Morris. But can't let him start 5-6 or 8-9 or whatever it was. We know George and Reggie Jackson are going to get theirs at this point, but we can't let a 3rd guy get going - whether it's Morris, Beverley, Mann, etc.

Another game where mostly everyone looked flat. CP looks slower and still hesitant and indecisive. DA was on cruise control, Bridges and Jae couldn't shake loose for open shots - Jae had some open looks early but bricked them.

Everyone thought it would be so easy to pound them in the paint with their smaller lineup but DA isn't a punishing big down low and that's not our style. He's being drawn out of the paint in their small lineup and then Boogie is punishing our smaller lineup because he has that ability. I think we can outplay them small lineup vs small lineup but that would mean sitting DA for longer stretches.

It was a good sign seeing Book get his offense going and Cam Johnson was a major bright spot. I was hoping he'd finish out the game but Monty went back to the starters and we started sinking again. Craig hasn't had much juice lately and he's usually been able to bring a spark off the bench. Nader may need to not play the rest of the way. I still think Jevon should've been seeing some minutes in this series to be our PatBev and just annoy the shit out of the Clips' guards.

Momentum is back with the Clips. I still don't think they're the better team, we just need to get back to how we play.

[iLLmatic]

I think this ends in LA. We'll make the adjustments necessary and the Suns will come out focused.

[SunsRIt]

I’m a more than a little perturbed at the moment. Remember the play where Paul George shoved Chris Paul away with his elbow and went up and drilled a 3? It was an obvious push off, thus an offensive foul. In fact, Mark Jackson made a comment about George’s upper body strength after he made the play. Now it is a meme show Chris Paul falling like George’s move broke his ankles. I saw the video for it on YouTube and all the comments were about how Chris Paul got his ankles broke by the move.

IT WAS A FOUL PEOPLE!!! AN OFFENSIVE FOUL!!! Of course that was overlooked by the refs because it was Paul George. Such BS!!

Rant over.

[Nodack]

I don’t know what to expect. Talk is cheap.

Williams on Ayton:

"I thought they put a lot of bodies on DA. When he was diving, he saw two bodies, three bodies at times. When he tried getting to the offensive glass, he had two or three guys boxing him out.

"He's going to figure that out — we'll show him on the film."

He’s going to figure that out? I saw sometimes four Clippers attacking the glass and one Ayton. That’s not on Ayton imo. They can get away with that because if Ayton does manage to rebound the ball over four guys, the Clippers know they don’t have to worry about a 4/1 the other way because the Suns are not going to push the ball, they are going to slowly and methodically walk it back up the court giving the Clippers ample time to get back on defense.

I want to know what Monty is going to do about that. We have fast guys and can run and choose not to. The Clippers thank us for that gift. Maybe Ayton could use some help if they are going to send 3/4 guys to rebound every time.

[Superbone]

I don’t know what to expect. Talk is cheap.

Williams on Ayton:

"I thought they put a lot of bodies on DA. When he was diving, he saw two bodies, three bodies at times. When he tried getting to the offensive glass, he had two or three guys boxing him out.

"He's going to figure that out — we'll show him on the film."

He’s going to figure that out? I saw sometimes four Clippers attacking the glass and one Ayton. That’s not on Ayton imo. They can get away with that because if Ayton does manage to rebound the ball over four guys, the Clippers know they don’t have to worry about a 4/1 the other way because the Suns are not going to push the ball, they are going to slowly and methodically walk it back up the court giving the Clippers ample time to get back on defense.

I want to know what Monty is going to do about that. We have fast guys and can run and choose not to. The Clippers thank us for that gift. Maybe Ayton could use some help if they are going to send 3/4 guys to rebound every time.

That quote stuck out to me too. Ayton is going to need some help! He can't do it alone, 1 against 3.

[djy2j]

I still have faith in this team pulling it out in a series win but I really just want nothing but bad things for a Patrick Beverly. He’s an absolute clown show and the refs somehow allow it. He plays dirty and he’s reckless. He will get no sympathy from me in the event of an injury. He simply deserves it.

To openly mock Chris Paul in that situation then try and come up 5 minutes later…seriously fuck off with that. You’re a fraud.

He doesn’t belong in the league as a player or a person.

[AmareIsGod]

Agree. Fuck Pat Beverly. I have a coworker that's a big fan of basketball but his team (Indiana) isn't in the postseason so he's just watching all of the games as a fan. He told me it's crazy how much physical play and chirping, especially from Beverly, that the Clippers are able to get away with. He hasn't seen anything like it in any of the other series. He also thinks its crazy how many technicals have been administered to our players, especially in LA, but Beverly sits on the score table acting like a clown, dances around after Paul gets hurt, walks up and says stuff in Paul's ear directly (I think he said "way to sell it") when he's standing there about to shoot the flagrant free throws, he crosses mid court again during his next free throw and comes close to Paul. The refs literally do nothing. They don't give him a technical and they don't even approach him to tell him to stop or knock it off.

It's such utter bullshit. Clothesline that little fucker. I'm sick of us letting him punk us over and over during the games and the refs just let him.

[ShelC]

I thought this was what he had said but hadn't seen a replay until now

[Indy]

this should have gone here...

CP3 has been AWFUL this series. Our on-off numbers with him are really telling.

Indy, how was being there for that game in person? Was it the gut punch it felt like on TV?

And yes, CP3 has not been himself. He's been sluggish starting our halfcourt offense, his jumper has been mostly off, and we just generally haven't had a potent offense at all. I'm concerned.

I haven't got to the game-day thread yet. I need to find time for that later today.

Energy:
In general, the place was really buzzing. It was pretty loud to start the game. Lots of screaming and cheering and fans taking off their shirts. But that was quelled with how we started the game. And it was like the fans couldn't catch their breath.

That brief 20 second span when we had the lead at 62-61 was the loudest I have ever experienced in an arena. I kind of want to go back and watch the broadcast just to see how Breen/JVG/Jackson could have even been heard during that stretch. It was unreal.

Refs:
I didn't get the benefit of a lot of slo-mo replays, so maybe they got a lot right. But my god it seemed the refs were AWFUL last night. Missed fouls are typical, but there were some blatant ones that were plain to me 14 rows up. And some crazy travels by PG (not to mention his push-offs). And Cousins was fouling Saric on half of his post-ups and they were letting it go. But if Book did that to Beverly it would have been called. That foul on Mikal was bullshit. The number of "Refs you suck" chants where most of the arena participated was probably over 7.

Ayton:
I was extremely disappointed that Ayton didn't seem to be trying at all on the boards or to seal. I lost count of the number of times he had a guard or SF on him and he didn't bother to fight for good position to receive a pass. It was mind-boggling. He had ZERO rebounds through the first quarter, and he played 10 minutes of it. I think it would be hard to be 7 feet tall, and have nobody else close to your size on the court, and not accidentally run into a rebound or two every few minutes. He just seemed so disinterested. I think we need to go back to doubting he will ever be worth a big contract and let him know the entire world doubts him before every single game. That seems to motivate him more than Chris Paul or Monty can.

Overall:
I didn't feel it as a gut punch. It was worrisome that we couldn't take advantage of the extreme Ayton mismatch. And it was really worrisome that I was so happy every time I heard Chris Paul was leaving the game. That all felt weird, more than a gut punch. But this Clippers team is really good, and very similar to us, and surprisingly well-coached. I don't want to admit it, but I can see us easily losing in L.A. and having a very hard time finding our groove in a game 7.

[Indy]

Same. Did they think the Clippers were just gonna roll over?

Well their opponent has rolled over in every other playoff series this year...

[Indy]

First bad game for DA, he looked like Rudy against the Clippers out there tonight. Honestly I’d match their small lineup with our own small lineup. Go ahead and start Ayton, see if he can take advantage, but I’d pull him early if he can’t and bring him in against Cousins, or Zubac if he plays.

The fact that the clippers can play pretty much every defensive style is giving us problems.

How can he take advantage if he doesn't touch the ball? There were at least 5 times he actually called for the ball and they still wouldn't give it to him!

He doesn't really have any post moves. He has that fadeway or jump hook. It was disappointing he kept trying to tip the ball to himself instead of grabing it.

EXACTLY

[Indy]

I also want to shout out Cam Johnson. I think him and Book were only two that came to play tonight. Book was abused defensively, but the Suns did no favors by putting him on smaller guys constantly and not fighting threw switches.

Book shouldn't be guarding Morris in the post over and over and over. That is just stupid defense, and this team isn't that stupid.

[Indy]

Cam Payne has been horrible tonight on both ends

he didn't have a single stretch all night where we were outscored with him on the floor.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/bo ... 80PHO.html

[ShelC]

Payne needs more than 13 minutes.

[AmareIsGod]

Payne needs more than 13 minutes.

Maybe he's a little more banged up than we realize or he's letting on? If not, he absolutely needs more minutes.

[iLLmatic]

Payne needs more than 13 minutes.

Maybe he's a little more banged up than we realize or he's letting on? If not, he absolutely needs more minutes.

I don't know man, I was at the game and during warm ups he was catching lobs for alley-oops. I can't even do that shit with an unsprained ankle.