Game Day: Suns (39-30) @ Spurs (51-18), Thurs 3/19/26

[The Bobster]

Considering that Williams, Brooks, Allen, O'Neal and Highsmith were all out against the second best team in the West (and probably the league) you can't really complain about the effort against the Spurs tonight.

Gillespie had a great game, Oso might have had his best game as a Sun and if Green and Booker had shot the ball better they probably would have won.

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

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[O_Gardino]

Wemby for 84?

I honestly look forward to a competitive game. The guys will give us the best chance they can to win this one.

Well, they gave themselves a chance.

Heartbreaking. Regardless of who the starters were, you can't give up a 6 point lead in final minute. The team looked out of sorts for that entire final minute. I thought Book's long 2 was a bad shot, and Green was shy. Gotta hit your fts, etc. Meanwhile the Spurs ran their offense for layups and easy baskets.

Really wish our 3pt shooting star could hit some 3s in games.

I didn't love the lineup and clock management at the end. Ott needs to focus that stuff this offseason.

I hope Fleming can forget those missed fts. They both looked like they were going down.

Green is shooting 46% in first quarters this year and then he's trash the rest of the game.

Quarter	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%
1st	52	113	.460	17	47	.362
2nd	32	95	.337	14	51	.275
3rd	26	70	.371	10	35	.286
4th	30	78	.385	8	33	.242
OT	2	5	.400	1	3	.333

On a positive note, great games by Osos and Goodwin. Props to Green for crashing the boards. Fleming was solid until those final fts. The whole bench was solid, which is great considering we needed 15 minutes from deep bench guys.

[ShelC]

Ott coached out of his mind this year. I think we have some good pieces going forward but some personnel changes need to happen.

Yep

I think any or all of the following could be gone next year

Green, Allen, O'Neal, Williams

What could they command in a trade?

I wouldn't make trades just to make trades, but we do need a real impact player ideally in the frontcourt who can be a scoring threat. I'd hope, similar to the bubble run or the Finals run, that someone will see what we've built and want to come here for the pieces mentioned. And hopefully that player is closer in impact to CP than Burner Man.

And that doesn't mean I don't like Williams, or Sheer or Kham or Oso or think they're shit or don't want them to improve. But they're roleplayers and if we want to take another step as a team, we need a 2way frontcourt player who commands the attention of the defense. Doesn't need to be this summer either.

[ShelC]

That one hurt…my thoughts on the ending:

We can quibble with Fleming being out there, but who else do you want? Bouyea is really the only one…unless you have Oso inbounding. Bigger issue is Booker never even tried to go get the ball.

Also, looking at the replay, Fleming had passed the ball back to Gillespie before the foul. Should’ve been a no call. You can’t intentionally foul someone who doesn’t have the ball in the final 2 minutes.

Lastly…you can’t let Wemby take that shot with no double. Goody should’ve doubled as soon as Fox ran to the corner. Make Wemby force up an earlier shot or attempt the pass to the cross corner and let Fox try and hit a 3.

Also the timeout by Ott ended up being killer…Booker almost got trapped, but he got it away to Green and broke their press…they probably would’ve had to foul Green.

Oso inbounding or go small with Bouyea and then sub during the FTs.

Goodwin said he didn't hear the call for the double. It's just especially frustrating because it seems like teams double or triple our guys and we can never make the right pass or get an easy score and at the same time, we can never double or triple anyone or else we get beat. It's been years of this already with different coaches that we can't avoid traps or figure out double teams.

[The Bobster]

To anyone complaining about Fleming being on the court at the end because they were going to send someone to the FT line, here's who they had available last night -

On floor
Booker - .868
Gillespie - .859
Green - .772
Goodwin - .708
Flemming - .522

On Bench
Maluach - .765
Bouyea - .710
Coffey - .692
Dunn - .500
Ighodaro - .479

The biggest failure was not getting the ball in to one of their more reliable shooters. That being said they've done whatever has been necessary the past couple of weeks in order to blow late leads.

Last 4 fourth quarters -

Spurs 28, Suns 21
Timberwolves 24, Suns 18
Celtics 29, Suns 26
Raptors 36, Suns 23
Opponents 117, Suns 88

[Superbone]

It's tough after a loss like that but it's a learning experience and we were missing a ton of players and yet led the whole 2nd half against one of the best teams in the West until the final shot. We weren't supposed to be here so we have to keep that in mind. But none of this makes it any easier after that gut punch.

Seeing as how we're likely not going to make it into the 6th seed or higher, I could see us not even make the playoffs. Anything can happen in those short play-in series. I could also see us go on a run if we get fully healthy for the postseason.

[Split T]

To anyone complaining about Fleming being on the court at the end because they were going to send someone to the FT line, here's who they had available last night -

On floor
Booker - .868
Gillespie - .859
Green - .772
Goodwin - .708
Flemming - .522

On Bench
Maluach - .765
Bouyea - .710
Coffey - .692
Dunn - .500
Ighodaro - .479

The biggest failure was not getting the ball in to one of their more reliable shooters. That being said they've done whatever has been necessary the past couple of weeks in order to blow late leads.

Last 4 fourth quarters -

Spurs 28, Suns 21
Timberwolves 24, Suns 18
Celtics 29, Suns 26
Raptors 36, Suns 23
Opponents 117, Suns 88

Ya, hard to complain about Fleming…and Coffey got hurt so he wasn’t available either. I really think the only other option would’ve been Oso inbounding. Fleming has a bad ft% but it’s on very few attempts. I’m sure he was nervous though as those were certainly the first real pressure fts of his career. Maluach, while a better ft shooter, would likely have been just as nervous. Bouyea maybe you could make a case for, but it’s not like he’s shot a ton of ft’s in his career either.

[JJ Slim]

Yeah Fleming was freakin' awesome before that. He did have a couple boneheaded rookie moves like when he had that huge block, rebounded the ball and then went to pass it to Green (I think that's who it was) and it ended up going out of bounds. I doubt he had ever been in that situation before and nerves got to him. I bet he has spent all day today practicing FT's. It was a great learning experience and he seems like he has the type of mentality to use it as motivation to get better.

[Split T]

I just said a similar thing in the other thread. Agreed on it being a good learning experience for him.