Game Day: Suns (38-27) @ Celtics (51-14), Thurs 3/14/24

[Flagrant Fowl]

That's bound to happen as an average-at-best defensive team.

[In2ition]

Disappointed. Celtics shot the hell out of the ball all night.

Did anyone see Bol's little drive to the basket at the end? It was subtle and a really smooth and beautiful move, imo. Just didn't finish it.

[TOO]

Suns shot 31 3s, Celtics made 25.. that's hilarious.

[djy2j]

Disappointed. Celtics shot the hell out of the ball all night.

Did anyone see Bol's little drive to the basket at the end? It was subtle and a really smooth and beautiful move, imo. Just didn't finish it.

I was wanting him to dunk it. 6 years in the league and he's still so tentative

[Furlanfufi]

Someone still thinks the problem is the roster?

This coaching staff sucks.

[TOO]

Someone still thinks the problem is the roster?

This coaching staff sucks.

You don't love Frank reading stats in the locker room after a win? I really don't know what else he does.

[Superbone]

Nobody is beating this Celtics team when they're that hot from three.

[Superbone]

Suns shot 31 3s, Celtics made 25.. that's hilarious.

Ha and ha.

[In2ition]

When is the last time the Suns shot 50 3s and hit 50% of them?

[Superbone]

When is the last time the Suns shot 50 3s and hit 50% of them?

I'm guessing...never?

[Wally_West]

I’m sorry but after watching this game, celtics just don’t impress me. I think we get em 6 games.***



***I didn’t watch one second of this game.

[Superbone]

I’m sorry but after watching this game, celtics just don’t impress me. I think we get em 6 games.***



***I didn’t watch one second of this game.

Obviously.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I've seen an inordinate amount of those types of takes in the hours after this game.

To be clear, they're ridiculous, IMO. The Celtics would convincingly handle this Suns team in a playoff series.

[Superbone]

I've seen an inordinate amount of those types of takes in the hours after this game.

To be clear, they're ridiculous, IMO. The Celtics would convincingly handle this Suns team in a playoff series.

Takes from people who didn't watch the game? That's weird.

[Wally_West]

It’s y’all fault for taking my posts seriously.

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Spoiler: show/hide

[Mori Chu]

Meh, I'm not actually that upset about this loss. Partly it's because I have already accepted that this year's Suns team is not a contender, so I am not worried about being unable to beat one of the league's elite teams. But it's more than that. I thought we actually played pretty well, for us. We had 4 guys with 20+ points (the Big = 3 and Grayson) and a nice 10-point contribution from Bol Bol off the bench. Nurk gave us 20 boards. We actually DID distribute the ball decently well: Nurk had 6 assists and Beal and Book had 7 each, which is very impressive for this team.

But we just didn't play good defense. Boston was getting wide open 3s all night. This is especially unacceptable when we'd give open looks to one of their guys who is ONLY out there to shoot 3s, like Hauser. We also let them waltz to the rim for layups and dunks several times. This team is really bad at defense against elite opponents. KD is a very good defender, but our guards all stink at it, our centers are only so-so, and basically teams can get the shots they want.

We also had several role/bench players who didn't deliver. Royce O'Neale shot 0-7 and is now in a 3-4 game slump where his shooting has been just horrid. I hope he figures it out soon. We inexplicably played Ish Wainwright a lot of minutes; why is he out there? He shot 1-6 (I know some of it was in garbage time). I really don't think Ish is a rotation guy for us. Or, if he is, we're screwed. As cool as I am on Eric Gordon, it would have been nice to have him available. I also think we should be playing Nassir Little more, and maybe even giving Thad Young some run, but Coach doesn't seem to like those guys.

We also continue to throw the ball away over and over. We always do it the same way, with stupid risky passes near midcourt that get picked off and turn into fastbreaks for the other team. I want to tear my hair out when they do this. We had 13 turnovers tonight, which isn't the end of the world, but the ones we do have are really bad and almost always lead to layups for the enemy. It's extremely sloppy for such a talented team.

Not really upset about this loss. I just want us to get/stay healthy and continue working to play the right way. That means moving the ball well like we mostly did tonight, and majorly working on our defense. This D won't cut it in the playoffs. Teams will carve us up and we'll be out in the first round.

[ShelC]

It's one thing to not be as good as a team like the Celtics. I'm fine with that. It's that this team has never looked like it's been in any kind of flow or rhythm all year and there's a real lack of hustle and urgency. We're not good at anything, the pieces don't look like they fit, the coaching has been suspect at best and the guys really seem to be content to keep playing at a half assed level. The Celtics punched us in the mouth last night and we didn't do show any resilience. There's no fight or grit with this team. Jaylen Brown punked us all game and no one stepped up. I think there's been a lot of regression overall and I don't know how we fix that going forward. I'm just about out on Vogel and think we need a tougher coach to really challenge guys and push them.

[Mori Chu]

I agree that Vogel hasn't been good enough. I would be fine with getting rid of him this offseason if anybody interesting is available. I also agree with your points about the team not having any flow or rhythm. The whole isn't greater than the sum of the parts. It's just a collection of players. And I totally agree that they have no toughness, they never get mad or push back when another team is punching us in the mouth.

I wanted to mention that I thought Book hasn't looked quite right yet since returning from his injury. He's been a bit slower, more tentative, hasn't shot the ball well. If Book and Royce O'Neale were playing like their usual selves, last night's game might have gone differently.

[MightyMoog]

Just keep in mind this team has played 0 games with their top 8 guys all available.

I also think this team plays in fear of getting injured. They know they need to drive, but they’re not aggressive because they might get injured.