Game Day (Playoffs Round 1, Game 2): Suns (0-1) @ Thunder (1-0), Wed 4/22/26

[Superbone]

Time: 6:30 pm AZ (6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET)
Place: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
TV: ESPN

The Suns were demolished first time out. OKC has been allowed to grab and hold our players which results in stifling defense where it is hard just to get off a shot. Let's see if the Suns are able to make any meaningful adjustments. Let's also hope Goodwin can play but knowing him, he'll be out there.

https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/thunder.pdf
https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/suns.pdf

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

[ShelC]

So Ott says, or reinforces, that we need to cut down on ISO offense and Brooks is like "nah". Maybe he's trolling, maybe not. If not, can't say it's a good look to just go against the coach. Might be something, might be nothing.

[TOO]

I hate Dillon Brooks.

[Mori Chu]

I'm not exactly looking to trade Dillon Brooks this offseason. But if other teams call, I'm not immediately hanging up...

Don't really have high hopes for this one, but hopefully we can have a better showing and better hopes heading back home to Game 3 and our best chance to steal a game. And no more injuries, please.

[Superbone]

I'd like to see more fight and competition but wouldn't be surprised by another blowout. At least the young guys would get some playing time. Tough to compete when the other team is allowed to put hands all over you and grab you around the waist with both hands.

[Superbone]

No Goody, would be no goody.

[Superbone]

Tough enough without our starting center and best secondary ball handler, Allen, while the Thunder are pretty much fully healthy.

[Superbone]

The refs have a double standard when it comes to OKC and it makes it almost impossible to beat them. Just watch how they guard Booker. They are holding him with two hands almost the entire time and are allowed to get away with it.

So why not just make a statement tonight, play like them, and let the refs foul out our team? The Thunder are good enough to not need the 8 on 5 advantage.

We can't touch SGA without it being a foul. Usually an "and one".

[SunsRIt]

The refs have a double standard when it comes to OKC and it makes it almost impossible to beat them. Just watch how they guard Booker. They are holding him with two hands almost the entire time and are allowed to get away with it.

So why not just make a statement tonight, play like them, and let the refs foul out our team? The Thunder are good enough to not need the 8 on 5 advantage.

We can't touch SGA without it being a foul. Usually an "and one".

This times 1000!!!

[Superbone]

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Tough enough without our starting center and best secondary ball handler, Allen, while the Thunder are pretty much fully healthy.

Goodwin is our starting PF, and Oso… oh wait, you were talking about Williams!

Seriously, I really hope the team takes the chance to adjust the lineups now that Goodie went down. It’s infuriating watching our guys jumping like kids around Chet, and the smirk he and Harstenstein have after a power play or even a offensive rebound. No doubt the coach had instilled on them the “disrespectful” it looks from Phoenix to put such lineups on.

Most probably…. We will see a Gillespie-Booker-Green-Brooks- Oso lineup to broke the allowed offensive rebounds records before halftime. Houston looked so harmless on the boards yesterday against proper sized matchups, including the well known turnovers from KD under pressure.

[Split T]

Did y’all see that the referee president was a Thunder fan previously…I’m not saying it’s rigged, but it’s not a great look when everyone thinks the Thunder get a friendly whistle.

[Superbone]

Did y’all see that the referee president was a Thunder fan previously…I’m not saying it’s rigged, but it’s not a great look when everyone thinks the Thunder get a friendly whistle.

I did not. It certainly doesn't improve the optics.

[Superbone]

[Mori Chu]

I do think OKC (especially Shai) gets too many foul calls. But I don't think this guy Albert Sanders Jr being a past OKC fan has much to do with it. He isn't there, he isn't the one officiating the games. And I very much doubt he calls up all the refs and says "hey guys please let OKC have all the calls, that's my team!"

Really it's part of a bigger problem where the refs as a whole have been way too willing to call touch fouls especially on guys who flop / exaggerate contact, guys who plow into their defender then flail their arms, guys who pull up for a jumper and then fall down afterward. Harden was the prototype for this and now guys like Shai have further perfected it. I hate watching that crap but you can't really blame players for doing it if it really does give them an advantage. It's on the refs not to call it. And I do think they allow much more contact when Booker is being guarded, but I also saw some stats that Book has one of the better FT rates in the league, so he does get some calls, too.

I am not really worried about some of our guys like Williams or Grayson or Goodwin being hurt. We aren't winning this series; it does not matter at all. Just play the young guys, don't overstrain veterans like Booker, get the youngs some invaluable playoff experience. Let them see firsthand what a true contender does as they take care of business in a 1-8 series. Hopefully they'll see they/we still have a lot of work to do. Not something to hang our heads about; it should give us resolve to keep getting better.

[ShelC]

What's curious to me is that the league was supposed to be allowing more physical play/defense and handchecking but then they blow the whistle on touch fouls for Shai. I get there are superstar calls but I'd rather see him battling thru defenders than getting bailed out.

[Superbone]

[Mori Chu]

Shai holding his left hand after a fall.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Maybe Doris will go over and kiss his booboo.

[djy2j]

Maybe Doris will go over and kiss his booboo.

Thankfully watching at a bar with no sound so I can't hear her bitch ass.