Game Day: Suns (43-31) @ Pelicans (45-29), Mon 4/1/24

[SunsRIt]

It amazes me what Zion is allowed to get away with.

[Split T]

I’m blown away they reversed that call after all the fouls they gave Zion down the stretch

[JeremyG]

8 threes for Booker...is it enough to end the other curse?

[Superbone]

Wow. 36 points with 3:40 left in the first quarter. They came to play tonight.

Let's see if they can sustain it for more than 1 quarter.

2 and a half was enough, I guess. Played them even in the 4th. Got really sloppy with the ball to give the bad guys a chance. Great strategy to continue to jack threes in the 4th when they were in the bonus for most of the quarter.

[Superbone]

I've never seen a team so reckless with the ball. Just lazy passes, completely unnecessary.

The opposite of Chris Paul.

[Superbone]

8 threes for Booker...is it enough to end the other curse?

What’s the other curse?

[TOO]

8 threes for Booker...is it enough to end the other curse?

What’s the other curse?

People really seem to care where he sticks his weiner.

[Superbone]

8 threes for Booker...is it enough to end the other curse?

What’s the other curse?

People really seem to care where he sticks his weiner.

Oh, that. I thought there was another statistical curse ‘Bazz mentioned the other day.

[JeremyG]

You’re both wrong. I meant THE curse.

[Shabazz]

He did the thing!

Now can he do the other thing? (regular season triple double)

And can we do the big thing that Jeremy is referring to?

[Shabazz]

Why did we keep iso-ing KD against Herb Jones? And why did Book play decoy for his first 6 minutes in the 4th? Step it up, Frank.

[Superbone]

Why doesn’t Book just do this every night? He only does it when family and friends are in attendance?

[ShelC]

Postgame Quotes and Videos

Spoiler: show/hide

[Mori Chu]

So, I didn't realize this until I saw it on Twitter. But apparently Book has had 50+ in his last 3 games vs the Pelicans, and a big reason for it is that the last time the Pels beat us in 2022, they heavily rubbed it in, taunting the Suns, chanting "Booker sucks," etc., and Zion did an unnecessary windmill dunk with less than 10 seconds on the clock against zero defenders?

Apparently, Booker has never forgotten it and has personally beat the living shit out of the Pelicans every time we've played them since. That is really awesome. Booker is an assassin.

[Mori Chu]

This was a nice win, exactly the sort of play we'll need if we want to make it to the playoffs and not limp to a #10 seed play-in loss. Obviously the highlight was Booker's crazy 52-point game on 19-28 shooting (and eight 3s! huzzah!), along with 9 assists.

Otherwise the starters did the bulk of the work; no bench player had more than 4 points. KD played 41 minutes and most of the other starters were in the high-30s. I suspect this is closer to what our playoff rotation will look like.

Most of our starters played fine, but KD had another one of his off nights, shooting 7-19. He also had several of those bad turnovers where he high-dribbles the ball and gets stripped, or those lazy side passes that get picked off. Just really sloppy and lethargic. Seems to me like KD could use a game or two of rest if we can find a way to give it to him.

Eric Gordon also really struggled in this game. He shot 1-7 and six of those shots were 3s. A lot of them looked way off the moment they left his hands. Some nights he has it and some nights he doesn't. Also, Bol Bol basically gave us nothing tonight, scoring 0 in 5 minutes of play.

Pelicans are a lot more interesting team now that Zion seems to be more committed to keeping his weight down and staying healthy. They have a lot of really nice pieces like Herb Jones and Murphy who you'd be happy to have on your team. Jones was really active on defense in this one as usual. CJ McCollum didn't help them with his 6-17 shooting night.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585720

[Split T]

I only caught the end..who was guarding Booker? Herb Jones is supposed to be some all-world defender, but he doesn’t seem to bother Book…or did he spend all his time on KD?

[In2ition]

It's crazy on Twitter when you see KD stans complain about these type of games from Book. They go into how it hurts the team, and no one gets involved, but when KD has big games everyone else is involved. It's nuts and comical.

[ShelC]

It was nice seeing Book go off and find his rhythm. He's really fun to watch when he's locked in and everything is working for him offensively. But it feels like we need someone to go nuts just to build a lead and have a chance at winning. It's Grayson hitting eight 3s in a half or one of the Big 3 giving us 30+ on 55% shooting. Doesn't seem like there's ever a good balance or the Big 3 all playing well in the same game.

I have to go back and watch the 4th when Zion went off. We were using Beal to guard him in the first half and it worked really well. Think we went away from that later on. But Zion also took the initiative and bullied his way to the basket which is impossible to defend. Not sure why they weren't going to him earlier. They were using him as a screen and roll option and that's just not his game. He needs the ball in his hands getting downhill to be most effective.

It's really frustrating seeing the team come out with such bounce some games and be completely flat in others. We also still shrink when the going gets tough. When we start missing shots and turning the ball over, we slow down and tighten up which gives the other team momentum. Happened last night again. We just can't seem to find reliable offense to go to when we need a basket.

[Split T]

They had Beal on him, but they were also forcing a lot of switches to get Grayson or Nurkic on him

[TOO]

It's crazy on Twitter when you see KD stans complain about these type of games from Book. They go into how it hurts the team, and no one gets involved, but when KD has big games everyone else is involved. It's nuts and comical.

I hate player stans, the weirdest of the weird.