Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

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Split T
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Split T »

Ayton was pretty good tonight when on the court. Thought we did a good job of keeping him in the offense. I missed the beginning, so I didn’t see his attack off the dribble, but glad to hear he did it. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but Ayton is just maybe the most unique low post guy in the game. He’s big and athletic, loves to play near the rim, but is also a finesse guy. It works for him I guess, but I think that’s partly why he gets so much crap sometimes. He’s not what we expect someone with his physical tools to be.

Paul didn’t have a great game, but then you look at the box score and he dropped a 9/13/5/5/2. Payton filled it up in his minutes 6/5/6.

Shamet with the type of game you want to see from a guy you paid 4/40 for. McGee brought the energy that kickstarted our big run in the 3rd.

I mentioned Book already as he had his best game of the year.

I don’t hate Nader like some(specialsauce) but not exactly sure why he’s in the rotation at this point. I guess we don’t have a ton of options, I don’t love playing two bigs, but I think I’d just keep either Crowder or Cam at the 4 already and give Shamet or Cam more minutes. Think we can go with a 9 man rotation.

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Split T
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Split T »

JeremyG wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:46 pm
I only hear one whistle but both refs signaled foul at the same time.
Hmm, maybe the baseline guy blew the whistle. I just saw the outside guy signal foul…didn’t really look at the baseline guy to close I guess

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pickle
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by pickle »

Split T wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:52 pm
Ayton was pretty good tonight when on the court. Thought we did a good job of keeping him in the offense. I missed the beginning, so I didn’t see his attack off the dribble, but glad to hear he did it. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but Ayton is just maybe the most unique low post guy in the game. He’s big and athletic, loves to play near the rim, but is also a finesse guy. It works for him I guess, but I think that’s partly why he gets so much crap sometimes. He’s not what we expect someone with his physical tools to be.

Paul didn’t have a great game, but then you look at the box score and he dropped a 9/13/5/5/2. Payton filled it up in his minutes 6/5/6.

Shamet with the type of game you want to see from a guy you paid 4/40 for. McGee brought the energy that kickstarted our big run in the 3rd.

I mentioned Book already as he had his best game of the year.

I don’t hate Nader like some(specialsauce) but not exactly sure why he’s in the rotation at this point. I guess we don’t have a ton of options, I don’t love playing two bigs, but I think I’d just keep either Crowder or Cam at the 4 already and give Shamet or Cam more minutes. Think we can go with a 9 man rotation.
This might come from the fantasy basketball player in me, but it never ceases to amaze me how these diminutive guards like CP3 and FVV can routinely have multiple block games while bigs like Ayton can't even buy one. Not trashing Ayton... thought I should make that clear.

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Split T
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Split T »

I imagine they’re more similar to steals to be honest…like knocking the ball away when someone is going into their shooting motion. I’d bet Paul almost never blocks someone after the ball is released.

Edit: here’s block 1

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?GameE ... )&sct=plot

And block 2

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?GameE ... )&sct=plot

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pickle
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by pickle »

I guess that's up to the scorer's discretion whether that's a block or just a ball that got popped loose... at least it won't result in a turnover for the offensive player in this case.

Watching replays and just getting to that Ayton drive... hope this doesn't come off as nitpicking as it comes from a good place, but I wish after he gathered the ball and pump faked and got Sengun vertical, that he would've ducked his body forward and got himself closer to the basket for an even higher percentage shot. Instead he just took the contact and shot a little right handed half hook banker. It went in so I won't complain, but I wish he got all the way to the cup.

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Nodack
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Nodack »

Ayton missed some fairly easy ones. He was being aggressive in the paint and I am all for that. Those will start to fall.

Shamet came to life finally.

My wife when McGee came in. “Who is that?” I said “McGee, the new back up center”. By the time he came out she said “I like that McGee guy!”

Suns starting to gel.

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Flagrant Fowl »

McGee is exactly the type of player casual fans love. :lol:

He was great tonight, gotta give him credit for it. He brings energy that is otherwise missing with Cam Payne injured. I think he only had one boneheaded play when he turned it over on a dumb pass that lead to a Rockets layup. The problem is when he strings together 2 or 3 of those plays, so hopefully we don't see that much or Monty is willing to throw Frank in there when McGee is off.
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by pickle »

I don't really get the Nader bashing. He plays super hard on defense and was the only one that could slow down Gordon in the first half. As a 10th man he presses when he has the ball on offense and doesn't slow down to find the better play, but that is who he is. I don't think his offensive decision making is any worse than Craig's, for instance... maybe not quite up to par as a cutter compared to Craig.

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Superbone »

pickle wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:56 pm
Indy wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:55 pm
ShelC wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:48 pm
Split T wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:01 pm
No excuse to lose to Houston
Given today's news, it'd be understandable if they're not entirely focused on the game.

No pregame media availability but guessing DA and Cam Payne are still out. Rockets are kind of tough with their young guys Green, Porter and Wood. Shouldn't take them lightly because they can fill it up.
Both were listed as questionable, so I would say OUT. EP has been so bad... We really need to get Cam back.
I didn’t watch the kings game, but thought Payton played with good energy in the Pelicans one?
The guy had a half a triple double tonight in only 14 minutes.
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Superbone »

Flagrant Fowl wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:17 pm
Very nice attack off the dribble by Ayton.
Yes, I was very please with Ayton’s aggressiveness tonight. Keep it up big fella.
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Superbone »

Flagrant Fowl wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:23 pm
Kevin Porter Jr. has a history of personality quirks, to put it nicely, but I'd really like to hear him defend his hairstyle choice.
EJ was hilarious tonight talking about sneaking up on him and cutting those things off.
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by ShelC »

Definitely our best looking win so far this season and still wasn't 48 minutes of clean basketball. I thought starting the game off the way we did was a really good sign all around. We've struggled in 1st quarters up until this game and with the Sarver stuff swirling, maybe a lesser team would've just folded and gotten blown out. But you really get the sense that this group has its focus on nothing but basketball and knew they needed to play better regardless of the outside stuff.

I thought all the main guys played well during the game, just not necessarily at the same time. Book was pretty consistent throughout. He's really coming on now and if his 3s start falling it takes us to that next level. Mikal didn't do much in the halfcourt but looked like Marion in the open court. DA was pretty steady, still soft around the basket which cost him some layups and got caught watching on D which led to some fouls. DIdn't see any ill effects from the injury. His dribble drive move was something we need to see more of. Also liked the guys making it a point to feed him deep in the post. Sometimes it was forced but they need to keep looking for him.

Shamet finally shook loose and looked really good. Cam started getting it going too so if both of those guys start finding their spots in the offense we'll be extremely tough to beat. Just need the bench scoring consistently and it looked like Shamet was finally comfortable out there working on and off the ball.

McGee was McGee. Does he remind anyone else of the Predator?

Payton had his best game I thought. I still don't really love his game but he was effective playing at his own pace and setting others up. If he can make the teardrop/flip shot in the lane consistently, it would be a huge boost to his game.

CP stepped up late with his jumpers to put the Rockets away. It's starting to look like he's holding himself back a bit, maybe pacing himself to start the season but also letting other guys make plays and learn to play/win without him doing everything for the team. He can turn it on when he wants, which he's been doing lately in 4th qtrs.

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Indy »

The Bobster wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:09 pm
Booker needs to get his shit together.
?

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by Wormwood »

pickle wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 2:33 am
I don't really get the Nader bashing. He plays super hard on defense and was the only one that could slow down Gordon in the first half. As a 10th man he presses when he has the ball on offense and doesn't slow down to find the better play, but that is who he is. I don't think his offensive decision making is any worse than Craig's, for instance... maybe not quite up to par as a cutter compared to Craig.
Nader is perfectly serviceable as a 10th man. Just as Payton is just fine as a 3rd string PG (way better than average, actually, for a 3rd stringer).

But... Suns made the game last night way harder than it had to be.

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pickle
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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by pickle »

Fully agreed. Other than the Laker game I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed watching any Suns game this season. Something is just off.

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Re: Game Day: Suns (3-3) vs Rockets (1-6) 2021-NOV-04

Post by jonh »

pickle wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 7:26 pm
Fully agreed. Other than the Laker game I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed watching any Suns game this season. Something is just off.
One brief thought that might now be related, but I personally have been feeling a bit of fan exhaustion this season--after the long playoff run, I actually have only been interested in watching 1 or 2 games this year, and have been a little more critical of the team that I would have been last year (if the team had a 4 game winning streak last year, I would have been ecstatic after all of the terrible prior seasons). The tension with Sarver and DA has been a factor for me as well.

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