Gameday NBA Finals Edition - Game 3 - Your Phoenix Suns @ Milwaukee Bucks, Sunday 7/11/2021

[3rdside]

There’s a theory in football betting that says when a star player on a team walks out on the pitch with a ridiculous haircut, that team has a higher probability of losing .. the idea being that the individual has just drawn extreme karmic attention to himself, effectively saying “look at me, I am a star who is worthy of a haircut this awesome”, which is actually a ridiculous haircut to the neutral observer, whereby signalling that he has elevated his own status above that of his team, thus karmically cursing himself and the team, as everyone knows there is no letter “i” in that word.

Booker’s outfit would fit the same theory, imo (and don’t shoot the messenger, it’s not my theory …).

[Mori Chu]

We may have lost the game, but at least we got an absolutely iconic Cam Johnson dunk.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I saw that Booker outfit before the game and was so confused. He's usually very sharp with his style.

[Nodack]

He’s just so much hipper than us we don’t realize it…

[Superbone]

LMAO

Don’t look now Giannis but there’s a car coming out of a haboob about ready to hit you.

[Flagrant Fowl]

A car coming out of a haboob hits Giannis?

Foul on Ayton.

[Nodack]

[Nodack]

[Nodack]

[pickle]

Nice one FF.

[Nodack]

[Superbone]

What’s with the 5 fouls interviewer asking the same question to every single person?! How about a little creativity, dude.

[Shabazz]

Gotta throw shade at a few people after this one:

Booker - it wasn’t just the missed shots. He was strangely passive and rarely drove. He never demanded the ball and was content to stay on the perimeter and launch 3s. Weirdest game I’ve seen from him in a long time. He’s had games where he’s cold or throws lots of errant passes. But it’s really rare that he just seems so out of it.

Monty - some head scratching decisions in this one. Not taking Ayton out for the last minute or so in the first half so DA wouldn’t get his 3rd. Sitting DA the entire last 8+ minutes of the 3rd even when Giannis was sitting (putting in Kaminsky at the end of that quarter was a white flag and an awful decision). We desperately needed DA back in and he’s rarely in foul trouble. Let him try and play through it. And then he did it again after Ayton got #5. Philosophically, I don’t get sitting a player in foul trouble for that much time unless you’ve got a solid backup, which we clearly don’t. And all the Frank stuff. It wasn’t his finest coaching game.

Bridges - he looked shook from the jump ball.

James Jones - I know I’ve said this before, but for all the (deserved) flowers he’s gotten, this team has a massive weakness and he didn’t pursue several options that were out there to address it (Dedmon, Birch). And how much better would we all feel if we had Precious Achiuwa right now instead of Smith (or Kaminsky).

Cam Payne - has struggled all series. Need a big game from him.

Anyway, Suns in 5.

[Charlie Smithy!]

Gotta throw shade at a few people after this one:

Booker - it wasn’t just the missed shots. He was strangely passive and rarely drove. He never demanded the ball and was content to stay on the perimeter and launch 3s. Weirdest game I’ve seen from him in a long time. He’s had games where he’s cold or throws lots of errant passes. But it’s really rare that he just seems so out of it.

Monty - some head scratching decisions in this one. Not taking Ayton out for the last minute or so in the first half so DA wouldn’t get his 3rd. Sitting DA the entire last 8+ minutes of the 3rd even when Giannis was sitting (putting in Kaminsky at the end of that quarter was a white flag and an awful decision). We desperately needed DA back in and he’s rarely in foul trouble. Let him try and play through it. And then he did it again after Ayton got #5. Philosophically, I don’t get sitting a player in foul trouble for that much time unless you’ve got a solid backup, which we clearly don’t. And all the Frank stuff. It wasn’t his finest coaching game.

Bridges - he looked shook from the jump ball.

James Jones - I know I’ve said this before, but for all the (deserved) flowers he’s gotten, this team has a massive weakness and he didn’t pursue several options that were out there to address it (Dedmon, Birch). And how much better would we all feel if we had Precious Achiuwa right now instead of Smith (or Kaminsky).

Cam Payne - has struggled all series. Need a big game from him.

Anyway, Suns in 5.

...flowers?

[Shabazz]

The cool kids are saying it.

[ShelC]

[ShelC]

Kind of felt like a hangover game where we just didn't have the juice to start. Book seemed out of it mentally and looked frustrated early on. When he made the effort to get into the midrange, his shots were on but too often he settled for the bad 3. I think something or someone got to him early in the game which threw him off.

Mikal coming up with a dud is disappointing after his big Game 2. You wonder if he'll ever be a reliable offensive threat and right now it looks like Cam's got more offensive versatility.

Obviously we need to figure out Giannis and keeping DA out of foul trouble. Giannis is just barreling towards the rim and getting foul calls. We unfortunately don't really have anyone who can do that. Book can get into the paint but doesn't always get the call and no one else can challenge or make Giannis work defensively attacking him.

Monty's subs were questionable unless he just knew early on it was a throw away game. Gonna need Holiday to continue shooting that way for them to have a chance. We gotta figure out the Middleton/Giannis PnR tho.

[bajanguy008]

Went on Twitter and saw Book's final stats, playing time and person's wondering if he's injured. That immediately gave me a headache but watching the 3rd quarter just now it doesn't look like anything is wrong. He just struggled.....

That was still a really solid quarter by the team but had that Nash era type feel to it. Scoring a bunch and playing decent D but just can't secure enough rebounds to close out possessions. Obviously gonna put that 3rd quarter display from Cam J in the personal vault.

Cam P been kinda quiet, I have to check his minutes though as I feel he's been doing shorter stints. I could be wrong tho

I haven't checked all the stats but saw a tweet that Mikal had 5 shots or something which usually is an indicator that we didn't get much fast breaks or 3s off ball rotation.

I agree with others wondering where DA was after we got the lead down but game still a blur to me. All I can remember is Jrue hitting 3s to push the lead back up. Frank getting roasted on n off the court but we have to figure out something, can't leave it all to DA. Gonna need more help from Mikal, Book, Cam on the glass especially as Tucker keeps crashing the glass against Book n CP3.

That's the dilemma though, we want to push the ball but really might need everyone trying to gang rebound. Well we keep finding a way each series and bouncing back so to be continued

[Flagrant Fowl]

I think the Suns will come out with a lot of force, as Monty likes to say, in Game 4.

I think Scott Foster psyches them out. It felt like once a few calls went against them they kind of just accepted that's how it's going to be and didn't want to push back too much. I think I saw Crowder laughing a few times after being called for fouls. In a way, I get it. The Bucks are a good team and they should win Game 3, so it's probably not worth the trouble to get into it with someone like Foster.

I also got a little WCF Game 5 vibes from this game. Monty's rotation and his benching of Booker were weird. Nothing about either of those follows what we've seen from this team, but it's a similar feeling to when I thought the Suns were "figured out" after Game 5. I was wrong and they blew the doors off of the Clippers in Game 6. I think they can get back to their previous level, even though there's plenty to worry about with the bench depth.

If I had to make a guess, I'm expecting Game 4 to get a little dirty. It'll be the first game with both teams playing with equal amounts of desperation and the Suns just put their feelings about the officiating out there in the media. The refs are more likely to let things be physical than call it tight, so we might see a few more hard fouls and chest bumping in the next one.

[bajanguy008]

I know the yung fellas be on social media heavy and might not even try saying that they don't hear all the noise like other players do but this is interesting
This is literally only couple hours after the game and Mikal finds it necessary to say this....



Not sure if it's a good thing or bad. Monty even said Game Film ASAP although he maybe didn't mean literally or well for the coaches I guess. I would just assume maybe the next day is when the guys would hear some of the chatter cause they shut out everything after the game but like I said, grabbing your phone/ immediately checking the timeline is the generation