Game Day: Heat (28-25) @ Suns (38-15), Tues 4/13/21

[Superbone]

Paul finally had a turnover in the 4th quarter. It was his first turnover in 8 quarters.

[Superbone]

Paul with his three steals passed Maurice Cheeks to become number 4 on the all-time list with 2,310.

[bajanguy008]

Not gonna vent about Book tonight
Just gonna hope these mentally trip out games don't be happening in the playoffs

Awesome performance by the bench
DA is doing quite well. Still having some hands issues but he's been pivoting and showing some nice footwork to take advantage of switches and score

Know he used to drive us crazy, passing out with small players on him but think he's navigating those situations much better

[carey]

I watched the game & I couldn't tell you if we stepped up our defense or all of a sudden they went ice cold. A team that put up a 34 point first quarter also put up 2 quarters in the teens.

[Mori Chu]

IMO Ayton has been great for the past 4-5 games. Really impressed with his presence on defense, and he's making better decisions and finishing better offensively. He's helping us win games.

Our bench was just nasty tonight. Basically every bench player other than the very end of the bench made a big contribution. Cam Johnson has been really playing well for the past 2 weeks or so. He had been in a bit of a funk around the time he got COVID, so it seems like he's back to 100%. Having him draining 3s like that is a huge weapon for us off the bench.

Cam Payne has also been really giving us good backup PG play. He had 7 assists tonight. It seemed like he was hitting shots and also finding open guys all over the place. He has a funny 3-point shooting style and release, but it goes in.

The Heat just aren't what they used to be. They have about a 0.0001% chance of returning to the NBA Finals this year. Their Cinderella run last year seems like it was a fluke. I like Butler, Adebayo, and Robinson, and they some nice players off the bench like Iguodala / Herro / Dragic. But I don't buy them as contenders.

[ShelC]

[O_Gardino]

The most important stats of the night are 6 and 4. Bam only took 6 shots and had 4 turnovers. DA absolutely shut him down. DA was the only starter who had it going, and his defense was good enough to keep the Suns in it so that the bench could win us the game.

It was really fun watching the twin Cams and the bench gang play tonight. They are so fun to watch when they get their speed and shooting going.

[Indy]

To the starters, besides Ayton--WTF?

To the bench and Ayton--thank you for winning us a game we had no business winning, and make it a blow out.



Our starting 4 w/o Ayton (in 96 minutes)
22 points on 24% shooting (16% from 3)
10 rebounds (1 offensive)
14 assists (9 TOs)
5 stocks


Paul 2-7, 5 pts / 2 rbs / 9 ast / 3 stl / 0 blk / 1 TO
Booker 4-16, 12/3/3/1/1 & 6 TOs
Bridges 0-5, 0/1/0/0/0
Crowder 2-6, 5/6/2/0/0 and 2 TOs

[ShelC]

Anyone who's been watching the last 10-12 games has seen what DA's been bringing. He's been a more effective player at 15-10 than he's been the past 2 years with 25-14 games. Aside from a few miscommunications and bobbled passes, he's been phenomenal defensively and pretty unstoppable around the rim. And the focus has been there throughout, which was the key to everything.

[Indy]

Anyone who's been watching the last 10-12 games has seen what DA's been bringing. He's been a more effective player at 15-10 than he's been the past 2 years with 25-14 games. Aside from a few miscommunications and bobbled passes, he's been phenomenal defensively and pretty unstoppable around the rim. And the focus has been there throughout, which was the key to everything.

Absolutely. This is what most of us have been saying about "stats don't matter; make a difference in the game."

And the best thing I saw last night was a dropped pass by Ayton. Typically this would happen a couple times a game, and he would hang his head a bit, not make eye contact, and Paul/Book's would shake their heads at him and you could see the disappointment on their faces.


But last night, on the pass that went right through his hands, Ayton immediately looked right at them, acknowledged he should have caught it, and they smiled at him while they shook their heads. It might not seem like a big difference, but it was there. This wasn't a "what the fuck man, just catch the fucking ball!" that you see when teammates are fed up. It was more of a "WTF! How could you drop that? LOL" that you see in close teams.

[Superbone]

Is the site screwed up for anybody else? I can't quote and reply to a post or start a new thread. The formatting is messed up on the main Suns page as well. I can only do a quick reply.

[Cap]

Yup, me too.

[ShelC]

Same.

[sose]

We seriously had no business winning that game and blew out a "good" east team by 20. Love this team and their depth. Treadmill Mentality.

[AmareIsGod]

Same. Site format is extremely weird.

[Mori Chu]

Sorry, my site hosting provider updated our PHP language libraries unexpectedly and it seems to have messed up some things? I will investigate asap but it won't be for a few more hours.

[JeremyG]

It's still frustrating to me that Ayton is shooting a career high FG% and a career low in FGA per game. They should let him shoot so much that his FG% either drops back down to 55% or he's averaging 30 ppg (or both).

[Indy]

It's still frustrating to me that Ayton is shooting a career high FG% and a career low in FGA per game. They should let him shoot so much that his FG% either drops back down to 55% or he's averaging 30 ppg (or both).

Nobody is preventing him from shooting more except himself. When he beats his guy down the court, he gets the pass. When he seals his guy in the post and there is an open pass, he gets it. And when he gets an o-board in the paint, nobody is asking him to pass it back out. He controls his FGAs as much as anyone.

[specialsauce]

Yeah DA dictates his touches. The ball finds energy

[JeremyG]

It's still frustrating to me that Ayton is shooting a career high FG% and a career low in FGA per game. They should let him shoot so much that his FG% either drops back down to 55% or he's averaging 30 ppg (or both).

Nobody is preventing him from shooting more except himself. When he beats his guy down the court, he gets the pass. When he seals his guy in the post and there is an open pass, he gets it. And when he gets an o-board in the paint, nobody is asking him to pass it back out. He controls his FGAs as much as anyone.

I've seen many times where he's in good position and calls for the ball and they don't give it to him. But it's also just a fact that if Monty decided to run the offense through him, he would post up more (or roll off the pick) and get more touches and attempts.