Game Day Playoff Edition - WCF Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns Game II Tuesday June 22

[Nodack]

Game Day Playoff Edition — WCF, Game II - Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns, Tuesday 6/22/2021

Time: Tuesday, June 22, 6 pm AZ (9 pm ET)
Place: Phoenix Suns Arena, Phoenix, Az
TV: ESPN

Can the Suns win 9 in a row in the playoffs and possibly without CP3 in the lineup again? Polly and Maizena say yes, they can.






GO SUNS!!!

Dis • cuss

[Nodack]

As per FiveThirtyEight, Phoenix Suns have 71% chances of beating the Clippers while the win probability of Clippers for this game stands at mere 21%."

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... id=rrpromo

Kawhi Leonard Ruled Out for Clippers vs. Suns Game 2 with Knee Injury
https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles ... 2_35210846

[Superbone]

Let’s continue our manifest destiny!!!

[Nodack]

And go to where no Suns have gone before…

[ShelC]

I think Lue will have to go big in Game 2 which could make things tougher for us. If they can neutralize DA or get him off the floor, we might be in trouble. I don't know how much Cousins has left but we can't assume he can't/won't impact the game. Would Lue start him to combat DA or play him more off the bench to take advantage of Saric?

Also need to watch the PG PnR because he rattled off like three 3s before we did anything about it.

[Superbone]

Kaminsky may be able to handle Cousins better than Saric. Maybe he’s our secret weapon.

[Nodack]

I would start Ayton and pull him a little early just to see if they come in with Cousins again and then stick Ayton right back in if they do.

[Split T]

Just let them play cousins, he’s a major negative defensively and we’ll pick him apart. He gave his best offensive punch in game 1

[Flagrant Fowl]

Cousins is small potatoes. Worry about how to contain Paul George and prevent role players from having a huge game.

[Nodack]

Just let them play cousins, he’s a major negative defensively and we’ll pick him apart. He gave his best offensive punch in game 1

His best offensive punch hurt us. 11 points in 13 minutes and 4 boards. I don’t think it was a fluke. I have seen him go off many times through the years. If he is a defensive liability, maybe Ayton can posterize him a few times. I would enjoy that. We did bring in Ayton after awhile in game one to cover him and the Cousins gimmick stopped soon after.

Chess moves. I still think bringing in Ayton would stop that in it’s tracks just like it did the first game. We just waited too long last time. Lue may not try that again and come up with a new wrinkle Monty has to deal with.

[pickle]

I don’t know why we would be worried about the Clippers bigs neutralizing DA after the first two rounds we saw. Not like Ayton is a Giannis type offensive player who gets his numbers in ISO and gets bothered by size and fundamentals. He plays within the flow of our offense and feeds off the guards. If the Clips put Zubac or Boogie at the 5 it just opens them up more to the pick and roll game where DA can use his mobility as a weapon. It’s the wing defense against PG13 and Cam Payne stopping Reggie Jackson that worry me more.

[Split T]

Just let them play cousins, he’s a major negative defensively and we’ll pick him apart. He gave his best offensive punch in game 1

His best offensive punch hurt us. 11 points in 13 minutes and 4 boards. I don’t think it was a fluke. I have seen him go off many times through the years. If he is a defensive liability, maybe Ayton can posterize him a few times. I would enjoy that. We did bring in Ayton after awhile in game one to cover him and the Cousins gimmick stopped soon after.

Chess moves. I still think bringing in Ayton would stop that in it’s tracks just like it did the first game. We just waited too long last time. Lue may not try that again and come up with a new wrinkle Monty has to deal with.

Yes but it took him 10 shots and he was a -11 for the game. He gave up more than he scored. Not worried about Cousins. I’m more worried about Morris regressing to the mean and hitting his 3s. I’m worried that PG won’t slow down in the 4th like he did in game 1.

[Nodack]

If the Clips start any of their bigs against Ayton that would signal to me that they have scrapped the plan they used against the Jazz of no center and have now surrendered to the Suns style because they couldn’t pick on Ayton like they did the defensive player of the year Gobert.

[Split T]

I still think going small might be their best chance. Cousins and Zubac can’t really stop DA Anyways…maybe on the boards, but they are much worse defending the rest of our team as they can’t switch.

[Superbone]

I would start Ayton and pull him a little early just to see if they come in with Cousins again and then stick Ayton right back in if they do.

That's a good point. Saric probably matches up well enough with Zubac. Maybe the adjustment is that they just swap starting roles although that's probably too big of an adjustment.

[Superbone]

If the Clips start any of their bigs against Ayton that would signal to me that they have scrapped the plan they used against the Jazz of no center and have now surrendered to the Suns style because they couldn’t pick on Ayton like they did the defensive player of the year Gobert.

That pretty much already happened. Zubac was in VERY early in game 1.

[Furlanfufi]

Just defend the 3 point line better, even if PG gets a layup everytime.
They won't be much better on defense without Kawhi, but we can limit the number of 3s.

[ShelC]

We just need to be prepared for the personnel change if it happens. They also seemed to be playing Batum at the 5 later in the game which drew DA out to the 3pt line so they might stay small just the same.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I think they'll try Batum on Ayton. IIRC, Ayton had a really poor possession with Batum defending him in game one. Ayton tried to post him, couldn't decide what he wanted to do and had to put up a shot to beat the clock and Batum stuffed him.

[pickle]

I would start Ayton and pull him a little early just to see if they come in with Cousins again and then stick Ayton right back in if they do.

That's a good point. Saric probably matches up well enough with Zubac. Maybe the adjustment is that they just swap starting roles although that's probably too big of an adjustment.

Zubac is a quality post up player on offense. He might not go through Saric like Cousins did but he will give Saric trouble. But on the other side of the court if Saric can contribute a couple of threes it goes a long way to spelling Ayton.