Grizzlies (20-14) @ Suns (26-6), Mon 12/27/2021

[pickle]

It does seem like Ja lands before he shoots sometimes…that last play was just bad defense. How do you let him get all the way to the rim? I know he’s fast, but make him shoot a jumper, even if it’s mostly an open shot…or just straight up double him. Make Anderson make a play.

Chris Paul came to double on that last play and just ran past Morant. Terrible mistake from Paul for the second straight game in crunch time.

I don’t think that’s what happened. Paul had the assignment and Bane set a pick and instead of switching Mikal and Paul both stepped towards Bane and gave Morant a head start. EJ kept harping on this during the break.

That last play design for Mikal, I get that it’s not expected so there’s the element of surprise but he takes a while to wind up his shot so that was not great coaching.

[Flagrant Fowl]

It does seem like Ja lands before he shoots sometimes…that last play was just bad defense. How do you let him get all the way to the rim? I know he’s fast, but make him shoot a jumper, even if it’s mostly an open shot…or just straight up double him. Make Anderson make a play.

Chris Paul came to double on that last play and just ran past Morant. Terrible mistake from Paul for the second straight game in crunch time.

I don’t think that’s what happened. Paul had the assignment and Bane set a pick and instead of switching Mikal and Paul both stepped towards Bane and gave Morant a head start. EJ kept harping on this during the break.

That last play design for Mikal, I get that it’s not expected so there’s the element of surprise but he takes a while to wind up his shot so that was not great coaching.

It looked like the timing was off because the official held the ball for so long. Booker kept starting and stopping his motion, and I think he and Cam Johnson were the 1a/b options.

[Split T]

Well at least we know we can replace Ayton with McGee and save money, right guys?

Literally no one has said that. Any more fan fiction you'd like to contribute?

There was more than one poster arguing in favor of doing exactly that, at the beginning of the season.

What people(me) were saying is if you spend 30 million on a different star, you can get away with starting a $5 million dollar center and playing them 15 minutes a game. No one was trying to argue for saving money…just spending the money differently.

[Shabazz]

Paul wasn't great tonight. I thought on the final play he should have given it another beat to develop to look for Cam or Book. Mikal on the turnaround over Adams wasn't a great look.

[Shabazz]

Good game from Stix tonight. He definitely battled. Adams is such a load down there.

[pickle]

I’m ok with this loss. As far as being ok with losses goes. We had some issues with our lineup continuity, lack of size/rebounding, and strange substitution patterns that probably didn’t help with guys getting into a rhythm, but we battled back from a significant deficit nonetheless. The last second defensive snafu was a good learning experience and hopefully we grow stronger from here. Don’t want to give the Grizzlies any more lessons on how to play a tight game tho.

Booker’s last 3 was awesome, but if only he hadn’t missed that crunch time free throw… we seriously need to work on the freebies.

[Split T]

It does seem like Ja lands before he shoots sometimes…that last play was just bad defense. How do you let him get all the way to the rim? I know he’s fast, but make him shoot a jumper, even if it’s mostly an open shot…or just straight up double him. Make Anderson make a play.

Chris Paul came to double on that last play and just ran past Morant. Terrible mistake from Paul for the second straight game in crunch time.

I don’t think that’s what happened. Paul had the assignment and Bane set a pick and instead of switching Mikal and Paul both stepped towards Bane and gave Morant a head start. EJ kept harping on this during the break.

That last play design for Mikal, I get that it’s not expected so there’s the element of surprise but he takes a while to wind up his shot so that was not great coaching.

Ya, you can for sure see Mikal flip his hips to switch onto Bane for just a half second, that was enough for Ja to get into the lane.

[Nodack]

Almost.

[bajanguy008]

Yea a simple switch or trap there makes Ja hesitate
Quick pass to Bane and Cam was in help position so it would have been a contested jumper

Giving up a layup in that spot is rough

[bajanguy008]

Only last week I said that I have to remind myself that there will be letdowns during the season and to not trip too much. Think big picture but again that was me expecting cold shooting nights.

High turnover games and seemingly getting out hustled will always drive me kinda crazy smh

Stix more than held his own tho. Good for him

[ShelC]

[ShelC]

Definitely a miscommunication on the last Ja score. This team might be fried at the moment mentally and maybe physically/emotionally. It happens, just gotta push thru. But we look flat and a little disinterested overall lately. Couldn't sop Ja or Bane, Adams was a load inside for us. Need more from Mikal overall, CP's shot was off, Shamet was 1-6 but I know he's really shooting like 74% from 3 so it just feels like he always misses. Payne stepped up offensively and he's really the x-factor for us. We need him to be a homerun threat because we're still lacking some dynamic scorers who can get hot and create for themselves. Nice night front Stix, who looks like he can be a rebound and dunking big in the league but we don't seem to want or need that. He should be able to carve out a role somewhere if we move on from him.

[Mori Chu]

Bummer to lose on a Ja gut-punch like that. But I'm not too upset about the loss. I think getting a few Ls can be good for us in the long-term. I don't think we should worry about the pressure of trying to keep the #1 seed and winning streaks; that can wear your guys out and cause you to play them too many minutes. We should just focus on playing good team basketball and staying healthy.

Very happy for Stix. He had a nice game. I laughed when he banked in that 3; it was that kind of night. 15 and 9 for the big guy, easily his career best NBA game. As usual we couldn't really count on our bench guards; Cam Payne shot 7-16 and Shamet was 1-6. Cam Johnson continues to be on a tear lately; he had 19 points in 36 minutes and certainly looked comfortable as a starter. (I think he'll be our starting PF next season.) Book did a great job carrying us offensively with 30 points and the big 3 that almost won it for us.

Pissed to lose but proud that they fought their way back. They shouldn't have dug themselves into that hole to begin with. They seemed to let Bane drive to the basket over and over and over for easy layups; not sure what happened there defensively. Oh well. On to the next.

[SunsRIt]

If Ayton is in the middle that last Morant shot doesn’t happen.

[Split T]

If Ayton is in the middle that last Morant shot doesn’t happen.

Possibly…it also doesn’t happen if Bridges and Paul don’t both initially cover Bane

[Split T]

Did Ja travel on his game winning shot?

I did notice a few times where I thought he landed before releasing the ball. What’s the rule here? Does ball have to be completely out of your hands before your foot comes back down?

[JeremyG]

It does seem like Ja lands before he shoots sometimes…that last play was just bad defense. How do you let him get all the way to the rim? I know he’s fast, but make him shoot a jumper, even if it’s mostly an open shot…or just straight up double him. Make Anderson make a play.

Chris Paul came to double on that last play and just ran past Morant. Terrible mistake from Paul for the second straight game in crunch time.

He was following his man, came late on the double after he had passed Morant. Honestly would have been fine if he either just straight up doubled or just kept going. Think there was some miscommunication as Bridges maybe thought a switch was coming and didn’t seem to be in great position. Gotta be on the same page there…honestly probably a good play by Memphis. Probably knew we would switch every screen so they ran a ghost screen and there was enough indecision that Ja had a small opening and took it.

Looking at the replay again, you're right. They needed to just bring a hard double and get the ball out of Morant's hands. Maybe coaching was the issue here, and instinct took over for CP3 knowing he needed to double after all.

[ShelC]

For those interested - https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport. ... 0022100505

[Flagrant Fowl]

I TOLD EVERYONE MORANT TRAVELLED ON THAT LAST PLAY. WHERE IS MY REWARD?!?!!!?!111

[JeremyG]

They say the start of the play was a travel. What about the end of the play?