Playoffs Round 1, Game 5: New Orleans Pelicans @ Phoenix Suns (2-2), Tues 4/26/22

[Indy]

MIKAL BRIDGES

[Mori Chu]

I was on a slight DVR delay for much of the game so I couldn't post much during. What a win! Mikal gets the game ball, of course. His stat line is pretty crazy; not only did he play 47 (!) minutes and score 31 points, he also shot 12-17 and 4-4 on 3s, and he had 4 blocks (!). What a game from him. Lots of guys had solid efforts:

* Ayton gave us 19 points on 8-13 shooting along with 9 rebounds;
* CP3 gave us 22 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals with only 1 turnover;
* Payne seemed to find his rhythm and gave us 12 points and a ton of energy;
* Shamet didn't fill up the stat sheet, but he hustled his ass off and played generally great defense on McCollum and others.

There were a few continued warning signs: Cam Johnson and Crowder still haven't found their 3-point touch; our backup bigs McGee and Biyombo delivered a combined 2 points despite an attempt to integrate them early; we still got a lot of fouls called on us despite being the more aggressive team. But this was a much needed breath of fresh air.

One more win to go. Let's close this out in Nawlins in 6!

[Drewsprocket]

I can’t think of a more impactful all around performance than this game. 3 of 17, how many fucking blocks, and dropped 31. Can you guys? Kal!!

[In2ition]

McCollumed moved last second wtf.

And Ayton intentionally stepped to avoid contact.

This charge call really irked me. It was so obvious that it wasn't a charge, that the ref should have never called it. CJ wasn't in position, He as off to the side as Ayton was driving past his left shoulder. CJ was practically falling down and turning his head like he was afraid of the contact, and he only contacted Ayton because he had his arms out in front of him. So at least 4 things on why it shouldn't have been called, yet the Suns are penalized into having to take a timeout and use their challenge. Pathetic.

[Split T]

I still don’t understand why you lose your challenge if you get it right. I guess they just want to limit challenges. I still think you just add a 4th ref who’s job is to watch on a monitor and can overturn any obvious missed calls. He can pause the game if he needs time, but I’d say if he can’t determine anything within 30 seconds the call stands.

[Drewsprocket]

I wonder if Pels will keep this up. Easily exploitable. I hope they’re proud of that 8 sec call. Almost worth giving up a possession to bait them into busting their half court defense.

[In2ition]

Unfortunately for the Pels, I think Book is back for game 6 and having another shot creator and facilitator will for the most part negate their half court defense, if everyone starts hitting their open shots again.

[JeremyG]

Listening to those Al highlights on his 89th birthday just makes me wish that I am able to just *think* as fast as Al can watch and absorb and describe what is happening in real time while watching such a quick sport.

Yep, what Al is doing is extremely remarkable.

Full game highlights:

[ShelC]

It wasn't a single 8 second violation, it was two over two games - one that was costly late in the game and last night's got CP a tech. There have been a bunch of other close calls, not to mention the stress it puts on CP every possession. It might be easily exploitable but we haven't even done that great a job exploiting it.

[Indy]

It wasn't a single 8 second violation, it was two over two games - one that was costly late in the game and last night's got CP a tech. There have been a bunch of other close calls, not to mention the stress it puts on CP every possession. It might be easily exploitable but we haven't even done that great a job exploiting it.

That is all true; let's hope it a moot point when Book is back.

[AmareIsGod]

I noticed they had Crowder take the ball up quite a bit the 2nd half. A good way to get CP3 a little bit of a break from Alvarado grinding and pestering him the entire way up the court.

[Split T]

Anything we can do to keep Paul fresh should be done in my book.

[Indy]

we've been doing that all year. And not just Crowder. The Suns have talked about how they track performance late in game versus number of dribbles a player has taken that game, and saw a correlation between fewer dribbles and increased performance.

[MightyMoog]

Sorry, the 8 sec violation last night rests solely on Chris Pauls ego. He had an easy outlet pass to Mikal, but wanted to go at Alvarado. I don’t like it, but I understand it. Without that ego he’s a just a good player, not a great one. But once in a while it’s going to bite you in the ass. Good thing with Paul is he usually doesn’t let it turn into an avalanche of bad decisions.
I chalk it up to the cost of doing business in the NBA.

[bajanguy008]

Just was reminded that reading y'all comments last night and now going through my timeline
Guess the good thing about watching the replay on League Pass and not live on TNT is obviously Reggie

Man everyone's complaining about him lol

[Split T]

My only issue with Reggie is he keeps saying Booker has been ruled out for at least the pelicans series…that’s not true at all

[Superbone]

Nice win! Glad to see the “others” finally show up. Saw them talking about the others on TNT. Is that the new catch phrase now? Freaking Bridges! They really needed someone to score without Booker and with Paul getting fatigued. The other others are starting to heat up slightly. The Pelicans have some great talent. They are only going to get better.

I'm pretty sure Shaq started the "others" talk on TNT earlier this season.

[bajanguy008]

As everyone stated
Mikal game was just incredible
What got my attention early was how demonstrative he was but I couldn't figure out if he was talking to Pelicans players or to the guys on our bench like he does sometimes

The first 3pter to start the second half he was really yapping and I felt it was maybe to the Pelicans player who chose to go under the screen.



Either way, gonna be more of the same in Game 6 for sure

[Nodack]

One thing I noticed last night. We surprised them with the Twin Towers look and it immediately resulted in several turnovers by the Pels. They were completely discombobulated for awhile. It probably won’t surprise them next time though. I liked the concept. Someone mentioned the lack of points by the bigs. I am ok with that of we get more boards. I got tired of seeing a Pel blow past their man like Paul driving to the hoop and draw Ayton on defense. They put up a shot. If they miss Jonas was there competing with Paul for the rebound which isn’t much of a competition. Going with the Twin towers negates that.

[bajanguy008]

Nice win! Glad to see the “others” finally show up. Saw them talking about the others on TNT. Is that the new catch phrase now? Freaking Bridges! They really needed someone to score without Booker and with Paul getting fatigued. The other others are starting to heat up slightly. The Pelicans have some great talent. They are only going to get better.

I'm pretty sure Shaq started the "others" talk on TNT earlier this season.

Actually for years now
It's one of his go to analogies for Playoffs basketball
"You need the others" "Fine, they're doubling me - swing to DFish or Rick" and so on
It's one of his few things that would make sense so he used it often as simple as it is lol