Game Day: Cavaliers (25-15) @ Suns (20-20), Sun 1/8/23

[Split T]

Is 12 minutes not part of the rotation? Would you say that Torrey Craig and Dario Saric were apart of the 2021 playoff rotation? They averaged 12 and 10 minutes respectively.

I think you want to have 7 guys you can trust to play big minutes and close a game if need be. Lee is not that, but if he needs to play 8-10 minutes, I’d feel perfectly fine with him handling that in the playoffs. He’s a guy you need to be able to scale back if need be.

[Superbone]

Masterful fourth quarter…by the Cavs.

[Superbone]

It's about that time where we give the game away.

The Suns sabotaged themselves with turnovers every time they got close. It’s almost like they don’t want to win subconsciously.

[Superbone]

I have never actually been angry at Monty until tonight.

He waited until the game was basically already over (down 16 at 6:25 left in the 4th quarter) to bring back our best player--and frankly our best point guard tonight also--Deandre Ayton. He was probably going to have his first triple-double of his career. Especially the way he was playing in the third quarter and was starting to hit his shots, he could very well have ended up with a 20/15/10 game or close to it if Monty brought him back with 10 or 11 minutes left when we were still in the game and we may have had a chance at the end. Instead, we get a couple minutes of DA after the game has already gotten out of hand and then he sprains his left ankle again. So frustrating.

Ayton had a team-high 6 assists tonight, nobody else had more than 3. Yeah, he missed a bunch of shots (mainly in the first half), but he had a couple of great moves into the paint off the dribble (he just missed the shots), and he did a great job of not turning the ball over even in difficult situations (0 turnovers, 16 for the rest of the team).

I had written a whole response to this post, but at this point I give up.

Apparently Jeremy plays chess while we play checkers as he sees thing none of the rest of us do.

[Superbone]

Didn’t watch tonight…worth catching a replay?

Not horrible if you skip the 4th quarter.

[djy2j]

Not sure we can fault Damion Lee. He was/is the top 3 point shooter. He's a hell of a pick up for league minimum and he wasn't expected to have to pick up such a heavy amount of scoring slack.

[Drewsprocket]

Lol. May we all be loved and adored by someone the way Jeremy loves Ayton. You go hard dude. Ride or die.

[ShelC]

Postgame quotes and highlights

Spoiler: show/hide

[Drewsprocket]

CP3 need to take Duane Washington under his little wing. If we’re tanking through our injuries, let’s get this dude a chance and developing some playmaking ability with Ayton and learn to get up his own shots. I hate watching Shamet run point.

[O_Gardino]

Is 12 minutes not part of the rotation? Would you say that Torrey Craig and Dario Saric were apart of the 2021 playoff rotation? They averaged 12 and 10 minutes respectively.

I think you want to have 7 guys you can trust to play big minutes and close a game if need be. Lee is not that, but if he needs to play 8-10 minutes, I’d feel perfectly fine with him handling that in the playoffs. He’s a guy you need to be able to scale back if need be.

In support of this, Lee averaged almost 20 minutes per game in the regular season last year, but Kerr scaled him back to just under 8 in the playoffs. I actually really like DLee, but I'm not going to pretend that we would win it all with him playing a major role.

[Split T]

Ya you’re in trouble if he’s in your top 7, but he’s fine if he just plays 10 minutes and takes a few catch and shoot 3s.

[JeremyG]

The comments on this one are marvelous.

[JeremyG]

Not sure we can fault Damion Lee. He was/is the top 3 point shooter. He's a hell of a pick up for league minimum and he wasn't expected to have to pick up such a heavy amount of scoring slack.

This exactly. He may have been the only good pick up but he was definitely a good pick up.

[Mori Chu]

The comments on this one are marvelous.

I was disappointed by this comment. Yeah, several posters have been criticizing Ayton, but I don't think anybody here actually WANTS him to fail. Nobody cheers if he screws up. But here you are saying it's "marvelous" when Twitter users trash our coach. Even if Monty isn't your guy, I wish you would at least want him to succeed and want the team to succeed.

[ShelC]

Suns Twitter has become increasingly toxic over the past few weeks. It's turning into Knicks Twitter.

[Split T]

I don’t get deep into it on Twitter…I have a few people I follow but I don’t generally read the comments haha.

[Superbone]

I don’t get deep into it on Twitter…I have a few people I follow but I don’t generally read the comments haha.

Yep, I don't read the comments.

[INFORMER]

I have to disagree with EJ - you're not looking to sign a player to replace Booker or Paul, you're looking to sign a player who can help you more than the stiffs they're running out there every night.

EXACTLY. I can't believe some of the "logic" being used to explain why the final roster isn't being used.

We have had multiple games when we are relying on DWJ to be our best offensive player. When you get to that point, yeah, a 10-day contract player can make a difference.

[Superbone]

I have to disagree with EJ - you're not looking to sign a player to replace Booker or Paul, you're looking to sign a player who can help you more than the stiffs they're running out there every night.

EXACTLY. I can't believe some of the "logic" being used to explain why the final roster isn't being used.

We have had multiple games when we are relying on DWJ to be our best offensive player. When you get to that point, yeah, a 10-day contract player can make a difference.

Hey, you don't break what's working.

[Split T]

Maybe we really are sneak tanking