"Just another game" *Early Start* Game Day: Suns (35-29) @ Mavericks (33-31), Sun 3/5/23

[Split T]

Don’t listen to the windy pod today…He’s poo pooing all over the suns…him and bontemps. Both seem to be suns haters. Bontemps just said the way to beat the suns is to let Book and KD take 70 shots lol

[TOO]

We thought it was the Sarver effect, turns out people just don't like to see the Suns succeed. Weird energy.

[In2ition]

Don’t listen to the windy pod today…He’s poo pooing all over the suns…him and bontemps. Both seem to be suns haters. Bontemps just said the way to beat the suns is to let Book and KD take 70 shots lol

That's quite a take and strategy. Sounds like they've used a lot of brain power on this problem and have it all figured out.

[O_Gardino]

I liked TRoss' activity in his first couple of games for us, but man. He sure hasn't been good yet. -9 last night is the worst stretch on the Suns, and the only Dallas guy to hurt his team worse was Luka. lolololol

I'm glad Monty hasn't forgotten Ish. That man is a baller, even if it has taken him a while to land in the league.

I'd like to see TJ find a place with this group, but I don't think he's a Monty sort of guy. Monty values intensity from his role players, and TJ at his best has never been described as intense. We sure could use an occasional quiet 12 off the bench, though.

It's great to see Book playing with this much passion. You can tell he believes they have a real chance this year.

[Superbone]

He works for espn, but ya he’s just a Dallas guy. He’s well connected to the national guys like Lowe and Windy though.

You're right, I see him on there all the time. He's well respected, but he bloviates about the Suns, when he doesn't actually know anything about them and is just using his Mavs glasses to look at them and comment.

He must be a big Booker fan then?

[Superbone]

I liked TRoss' activity in his first couple of games for us, but man. He sure hasn't been good yet. -9 last night is the worst stretch on the Suns, and the only Dallas guy to hurt his team worse was Luka. lolololol

I'm glad Monty hasn't forgotten Ish. That man is a baller, even if it has taken him a while to land in the league.

I'd like to see TJ find a place with this group, but I don't think he's a Monty sort of guy. Monty values intensity from his role players, and TJ at his best has never been described as intense. We sure could use an occasional quiet 12 off the bench, though.

It's great to see Book playing with this much passion. You can tell he believes they have a real chance this year.

LET'S DO THIS!

I am hopeful if you couldn't tell.

[Superbone]

[Superbone]

Watch the ridiculous foul call at 1:07. Luka repeatedly hitting Paul with his off arm.

[In2ition]

Shannon Sharpe is silly. Book has been talking since before he started winning and when he was still a teenager in this league. I guess he hasn't been paying attention, because they weren't winning. This is exactly who he's always been.

Skip, KD didn't pick Phoenix because of CP3, it was the same reason that CP3 came to Phoenix. It's always been about Booker. Why do these guys not understand that?

Was he talking about the shorter 3 pt shot when he called it the short corner shot, or the basketball term of the 'short corner' location? Different areas of the court. A shot from the short corner would only be a 2 pt shot. That's something that Devin drives to and shoots from at least once a game.

I would love the Suns could get Terrence Mann on this team somehow.

[Superbone]

Skip, KD didn't pick Phoenix because of CP3, it was the same reason that CP3 came to Phoenix. It's always been about Booker. Why do these guys not understand that?

Yeah, he's looking out for CP3? I don't think so. That's not why he came here. He doesn't have a huge ego but this is about his legacy.

[Mori Chu]

You can really tell which national guys don't pay the slightest attention to the Suns. They talk about CP3 being our leader, never mentioning that he's washed now. They almost never say intelligent things about Ayton. They usually have no idea about any of our role players like Okogie or Craig. They still think Cam Payne is the league's best backup PG. They saw us in the playoffs a year or two ago and that's it.

[Bucktastic365]

Luka was pushing off and extending his arm all game. He was doing to Okogie, who's no lightweight either. Just a joke of a game from the refs giving him all those calls.

I feel the same way when Giannis barrels his way to 20 ft's; which was LeBron in his 1st years.

I have no problem with the physicality; it's that they are rewarded for basically offensive fouling

"STAR TREATMENT"

[ShelC]

Looks like they acknowledge that it was an offensive foul on that last push off with 7 seconds left before the scrum and techs

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport. ... 0022200962

[In2ition]

The problem is that it was going on all game. I'm not surprised that they didn't call it in the last 2 minutes, since these refs were going to allow the Mavs to lower the shoulder, dislodge the defender and then extend the arm when they are off their feet to give another little push to create space, then they expected the ref to call a foul on the defender. At the same time, they didn't give the Suns the same type of calls for the contact that they were getting from the Mavs. It was really frustrating to watch.

I listened to Locked on Mavs this morning and those guys thought that the game wasn't refereed fairly and thought if he was called the same way on both sides, that the Mavs would have shot 50 freethrows. There are levels to homerism, but sheesh...

[ShelC]

I mean honestly....

[Split T]

Looks like they acknowledge that it was an offensive foul on that last push off with 7 seconds left before the scrum and techs

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport. ... 0022200962

That says correct non call…it does say Luka had an offensive foul against CP3 earlier

[Bucktastic365]

Based on the reports description it would be a no-call, which is what happened.

It's the "to" and "through" that is ambiguous to the call

[Flagrant Fowl]

Our team after the trade was always going to be 4 guys plus whoever was playing well. Those last 3-4 playoff rotation spots are wide open. Now is the time to find out who it’ll be, so I’m all for trying out everyone

I agree but I feel like that needs to be done over the stretch of the season not the course of a game.

So give Ross 20 mpg for a few games, and if he’s not cutting it then give TJ 20 mpg. Same thing with Ish, etc until you find a group of guys that you feel give you the best chance.

It’s hard to judge a collective group when they’re all getting 10-15 minutes with constant subs with different lineups

There aren't enough games left and the margins in the standings are too thin to do this.

Okogie will start, and Craig and Ish will be the next options in the 3&D role. Ross is competing with Lee and Shamet for the scorer/secondary ball handler role. TJ is somewhere between the two role groups and not really good enough defensively or scoring to deserve extended experimental minutes right now.

Monty will play the hot hand or who they feel best fits the matchup. I expect we'll see the adjustments come within a series if needed, but not during this final stretch to close the season.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Don’t listen to the windy pod today…He’s poo pooing all over the suns…him and bontemps. Both seem to be suns haters. Bontemps just said the way to beat the suns is to let Book and KD take 70 shots lol

They'd sound like complete fools if Okogie didn't have his worst shooting night of the season against the Mavs. Assuming that was an outlier performance, they're prisoners of the moment and aren't acknowledging the corner 3 will consistently be wide open. The role players 6-19 from 3-point range is about as bad as it'll ever get.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Looks like they acknowledge that it was an offensive foul on that last push off with 7 seconds left before the scrum and techs

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport. ... 0022200962

That says correct non call…it does say Luka had an offensive foul against CP3 earlier

That foul call on Paul made me so angry. Doncic did the same thing they called on Paul in the Bucks game that started to swing the momentum late in the 4th quarter.