Game Day: Suns (16-53) @ Rockets (42-26), Fri 3/15/19

[ShelC]

The defensive potential of this team is scary. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the offseason.

[Split T]

How was that a foul on Bridges? Harden just barrelled into him throwing him to the ground

[Split T]

Harden throws Oubre to the ground...no foul...just ridiculous

[specialsauce]

I never ever want to see Jackson in a suns jersey again

[Xylus]

Trade Josh Jackson as soon as humanly possible.

[specialsauce]

They lost this game because of Josh jackson taking over the fourth quarter. In a bad way. Booker disappeared and stopped going to Ayton all together as usual.

[In2ition]

Frustrating

[ShelC]

Chalk this one up as another learning experience. Really good game, but again we started to lose our collective minds with about 4 minutes left in the game. We gave the Rockets a game tho and certainly had our opportunities to get this one.

[specialsauce]

I cannot say it enough times, Josh jackson is awful. Just so bad. His IQ is zilch. So many bad plays tonight.

[Split T]

We went cold, harden took over...with the help of a few calls and that was that. We played well, would have loved a win, but this was a good effort.

[iLLmatic]

Chalk this one up as another learning experience. Really good game, but again we started to lose our collective minds with about 4 minutes left in the game. We gave the Rockets a game tho and certainly had our opportunities to get this one.

Another feather to stick in the cap.

[virtual9mm]

I watched the second half, and I think there are a lot of reasons the Suns lost:

- As the Rockets announcers said over and over again, Harden is apparently a fantastic post defender. And Ayton doesn't really know how to post up yet. But I loved how they went to him over and over again.

- The loss of Tyler really hurt. I feel that Booker was probably gassed towards the end. He was a one-man show in the 3rd. How much can you have left after beating double coverage for an entire quarter?

- It's hard to win when you lose your high energy backup center to injury, it affects psychology although the Suns kept on playing really hard.

What I didn't see was the Josh Jackson that people were apparently seeing, I didn't see too many boneheaded plays.

Chalk it up to another good learning experience, the Houston guys had a lot of great things to say about the Suns. The defense is impressive. If you have to lose -- this is the way to do it.

[Superbone]

They lost this game because of Josh jackson taking over the fourth quarter. In a bad way. Booker disappeared and stopped going to Ayton all together as usual.

Dude! You’ve got crazy tunnel vision when it comes to JJ. He wasn’t that bad and he didn’t cost us the game. That’s a pretty ridiculous take.

[Mori Chu]

I enjoyed this game a lot despite the loss. All I want is for them to play smart and hard and be competitive, and they did that. I enjoyed Booker and Ayton and I enjoyed Bender's minutes. Oubre was phenomenal. His defense and intensity and energy were phenomenal.

I personally was pretty annoyed with Josh Jackson. Every time I watch him I feel like I don't want him to shoot or make decisions with the ball. And then he chucks up yet another hitched jump shot or drives into traffic and takes an awkward falling layup. He has been making more of his shots lately and he has some games where you see glimmers of hope. He sometimes handles the ball really well and drives to the hoop for a great layup, or he finds Ayton with a nice alley-oop pass, or he hits an occasional 3, or whatever. But overall I find him really frustrating to watch and think we probably need to get rid of him.

[bajanguy008]

I left home early in the 2nd with Ayton off to a good start against Capela but watching the rest of the game just now it was another rough outing. I'm not sure he scored on any of the post ups against Harden and we surely went to him quite a few times on that switch, bummer
All in all I think we're clearly playing better basketball post all star and have actually look like a basketball team.
It still bothers me every time Kelly plays a good game cause we really need to be bidding against ourselves but that probably wouldn't happen. Likewise Tyler and Richaun would be such good pieces for our bench unit next season but again the $$$ issue sucks, I would like to think couple GMs think Holmes would be a solid scoop so keeping him on the cheap probably isn't happening either. early in the season when he didn't get the guard on the dribble hand off or cut and had to make a move from the FT line I used to be a lil nervous lol but he really is surprisingly effective with those drives now even using the euro step and off hand finishes

[bajanguy008]

Interesting
He's actually done well for them when they been shorthanded

https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/1106680747388223490

Not sure if it has been mentioned but Tyler is out tonight

well I was a little too right about this , dang smh

[LazarusLong]

Observations:
* Defensive effort overall was good
* Jackson still erratic, and needs better shot selection -- still, he's not as bad as some people think
* Ayton needs to adopt a "chess" mentality, rather than checkers. Too many times he hesitates in the post when he gets the ball. He had 7 turnovers.
* Before he got hurt, Melton was playing relatively well. But he got a DNP last night, with Tyler out.
* Daniels is a shooter and is best used coming off the bench. He shouldn't have started opposite Booker.

[Split T]

Jackson is shooting 46% from 3 in March. He’s shooting 31% for the season.

I don’t really see the complaints on Jackson in this game. He spent too much time complaining about non calls and he missed some key free throws.

Imagine if josh had been the one who missed that breakaway dunk that Oubre missed. He would have been eviscerated on here...not a peep on Oubre.

[Xylus]

Jackson is shooting 46% from 3 in March. He’s shooting 31% for the season.

I don’t really see the complaints on Jackson in this game. He spent too much time complaining about non calls and he missed some key free throws.

Imagine if josh had been the one who missed that breakaway dunk that Oubre missed. He would have been eviscerated on here...not a peep on Oubre.

Oubre brings a lot more to the table than JJ does currently so it’s more easily forgiven.

[Mori Chu]

Imagine if josh had been the one who missed that breakaway dunk that Oubre missed. He would have been eviscerated on here...not a peep on Oubre.

The missed dunk was bad. Oubre did so much good in the game that I forgive him for the missed dunk. But, yeah, that dunk was bad.