Western Conference Round 1, Game Day: Clippers (0-0) @ Suns (0-0), Sun 4/16/23

[Flagrant Fowl]

Oof. Better give Westbrook his props for that.

[The Bobster]

Yep. You don't come out ready to play and put yourself in an early hole, you're fighting uphill all game.

[Wally_West]

Well this night certainly helped Jeremy’s anti Monty agenda.

[Wally_West]

Yep. You don't come out ready to play and put yourself in an early hole, you're fighting uphill all game.

That was game.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Well this night certainly helped Jeremy’s anti Monty agenda.

But definitely not his pro-Ayton agenda.

[Gladiator]

Incredibly disappointing loss. We can still win the series but it is going to be a dog fight all the way now, which is the last thing we need with ageing stars and no depth. Home court, leading in the 4th. You gotta win that.

[djy2j]

Losing to Westbrook is insane.

He's so bad but now he's the hero. Just a terrible performance by a lot of people including Monty Williams

[Wally_West]

This feels like a 25pt loss coming. Monty starting TC then going with a bench lineup that can't fucking shoot lol. Yikes man.

This will not be a 25 loss. Book it.

Hope you're right, but they look terrible.

Told you this wouldn't be a 25 point loss.

*dies inside*

[The Bobster]

Too many times this year we've see this team sleepwalk through the early part of games. Certainly a good portion of that is on the players, but the coaching staff has to take a lot of blame too.

Monty was out-coached last year in the postseason and if it happens again this year I'm ready to move on.

[Wally_West]

Well this night certainly helped Jeremy’s anti Monty agenda.

But definitely not his pro-Ayton agenda.

Yeah, he was never gonna acknowledge that tho. Haha.


I love ya, Jemery, I do. Here’s to game 2, brother.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Paul's mid-range shot is cooked. It'll always be a coinflip game if he's shooting 1-7. Then add in a Center who takes the 2nd most shots and only hits 50% of them, and well...

[Wally_West]

If Torrey starting then Okogie, Ross, TJ should be the bench. KD at center. Having shooting and people that can create their own shot in Ross and TJ. Ross will be hunted but if he gets it going you can survive those minutes. TJ defense was pretty good before he got sick.

[The Bobster]

Suns bench - 55 min, 3/12 FG, 0/3 3PT, 4/8 FT, 9 Reb, 2 Ast, 10 Pts.

That's just not going to cut it.

[Flagrant Fowl]

If Torrey starting then Okogie, Ross, TJ should be the bench. KD at center. Having shooting and people that can create their own shot in Ross and TJ. Ross will be hunted but if he gets it going you can survive those minutes. TJ defense was pretty good before he got sick.

KD played 45 minutes. He has to get a rest at some point.

[LazarusLong]

Too many times this year we've see this team sleepwalk through the early part of games. Certainly a good portion of that is on the players, but the coaching staff has to take a lot of blame too.

Monty was out-coached last year in the postseason and if it happens again this year I'm ready to move on.

Monty's bench use has been ... baffling, to say the least.
To say the most ... clueless.

[Gladiator]

Suns centers 12 rebounds
Clippers centers 26 rebounds
Can’t let that happen
Also Clippers 15 offensive rebounds is way too many

[Mori Chu]

Argh. Losing to Russell Westbrook of all people. Got to hand it to him, though, for a great defensive play at the end of the game.

Durant played 45 minutes and Booker played 43. Paul played 39. We get only one day of rest between this game and the next one. We'll need to come back with a better effort in Game 2 to get things back on track.

Our bench scoring was horrendous; nobody gave us more than 4 points off the bench. I thought Okogie would bring us a bit more but maybe not starting threw him off. Craig was great, though.

[Mori Chu]

[Flagrant Fowl]

He really is robo-Jordan.

[Mori Chu]

OMG I just realized that Westbrook shot 3-19. Three for nineteen. Incredible. Somehow still made a big positive impact.

Chris Paul was quiet in this one. Just 7 points on 2-9 shooting. Also Ayton had a rough game, despite deceptively decent numbers (18 points on 8-16 shooting and 8 rebounds). He bobbled the ball in classic fashion several times, shot several weak ass shots that bounced out that could have been layups or dunks, and late in the game he tipped the ball out of bounds and generally completely forgot how to box out. He's so frustrating.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401540757