Game Day: Pelicans (2-1) @ Suns (2-1), Tues 12/29/20

[Indy]

well that decade only has a couple more days...

Actually, it’s been over for almost a year.

There was no year 0. Thus each decade (and century and millennium) ends with the end of the 0 year.

right. so these next two days are the end of the decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade

When did you turn a decade old, Bone? When you were 9?

[Indy]

That last stat is insane.

Especially considering they are not just catching and shooting. Both are being active driving the ball.

[O_Gardino]

Crowder is working hard for the game ball.

Really great game from him. Hopefully it will get him going.

[O_Gardino]

I'm done complaining for thw night, just gonna enjoy the rest of this before Bridgerton with the wife.

Typical Suns fan. Up 40 is the only time we defer complaining.

[Indy]

Dario set 5 screens on that one play and still found a way to be the connector/assist guy that got Cam a wide open 3.

[O_Gardino]

Zion moves well for a big guy, but I'm not overly impressed with his total game.
Perhaps he's having an off night ...

He's essentially a rookie and he's been living on pure athleticism. He has a lot of learning to do.

[O_Gardino]

Van Gundy might as well not have a face mask, he has it off so much ...

I judge coaches based on the masks. SVG and Walton are the worst I've seen so far.

[Indy]

Always appreciate your Morning After tweets Shel
I have to make sure and pop in with the usual Payne or Cam tweet lol

Why did he leave out Point Book? Probably because adding him in would mean we are at 70 and 31, which isn't so impressive.

Let's get Book back to being a great SG.

[O_Gardino]

I knew the boys could do it.

I feel like I had the Pels pegged. They can be a tough team, but things can fall apart quickly if the starters don't hit shots because they don't have a bench.

Lonzo is really the only guy who shot poorly. 3s didn't fall, but they were money inside the arc. Turnovers hurt them, they didn't run good offence to get to the rim, and they missed free throws. Most importantly, the Suns offense got in their heads.

[Superbone]

was determined to find this , shout out Suns Brazil
of all the good things we did last night, this had me so pumped for dude lol

That was amazing!

[Superbone]

Actually, it’s been over for almost a year.

There was no year 0. Thus each decade (and century and millennium) ends with the end of the 0 year.

right. so these next two days are the end of the decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade

When did you turn a decade old, Bone? When you were 9?

Just showing you that there are two schools of thought and the 0 based one is more prevalent.

[AmareIsGod]

I was blown away by Payne's assist here--its an Under the basket pass to Johnson. It might be more impressive to me because Im right handed, but it was amazing to watch.

He had a ton of great dive and dish passes, especially later in the game, that would have been great assists had we hit the open jumpers and 3's he created because of them. I'm really impressed with his PG abilities. He could have easily had 3 or 4 more assists than the box score indicates.

[Superbone]

What a find Payne has been!

[O_Gardino]

I didn't pay much attention to his D, and it is early in the season, and he may have been part paid as a locker room guy, but I still admire your optimism - his stats from last year don't seem to warrant it and he's definitely lost at the moment with a negative PER ranking him the 6th worst player in the NBA based on that.

http://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/s ... s/_/page/7

I'm not trying to call out 3rdside here, since there has been a lot of takes on Carter lately. I just want to put his pre-bubble stats out there.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... :pgl_basic

Code: Select all

First		Last		G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	GmSc	+/-
2019-10-23	2020-03-10	50	2	15.1	1.6	4.1	.400	0.9	2.3	.393	0.4	0.5	.840	0.5	1.5	2.0	1.3	0.8	0.3	0.6	1.5	4.6	3.8	-1.7

The 3 point shooting was there all season,The steals and blocks were good for 15 minutes, his assists and rebounding were OK, and he didn't turn the ball over much. His only problem was that he couldn't (still can't) drive and create. I guess his height is a problem, too. Overall, he was effective last year.

Dunno if he's worth what he got, but he's a legit rotation player. I'm not going to sweat his shooting this season after only 4 games.

[O_Gardino]

Great to get that blowout on national TV! The team looked good and not just because we were hitting shots. The offense was flowing, thought the defense was very good at times and was swarming the ball. Some possessions felt like the Pels just couldn't breathe. I don't think us shooting like that regularly is so far fetched because we have the shooters. We just need to continue getting guys their shots in rhythm.

In general, you don't see a lot of weak links within the offense. Everyone can dribble, pass and shoot. Cam and Mikal have kept up their improvements from the bubble and look very comfortable slashing and getting to the rim while still knocking down shots and playing great defense. Crowder's capable to going off, Gallo has solidified his role off the bench. Dario looked better than I expected, might be a little out of shape but who can really tell anyway. The ball moved much better with the 2nd unit tho and our bench was able to keep the starters on the bench.

Carter I'm not concerned about. We know he's a streak shooter, he'll get it back but can still provide a spark and some defense off the bench. Still early but Payne is looking very solid and picking his spots in the offense well.

Wish we hadn't dropped that game to the Kings but for the all the hype the Pels are getting, we made a bit of a statement last night. Let's see if we can stay in sync and get a streak going.

Nice breakdown, as always, Shel.

The bolded part gets my vote for Post of the Game.

[O_Gardino]

was determined to find this , shout out Suns Brazil
of all the good things we did last night, this had me so pumped for dude lol

Great find, man. That sequence should be on every highlight real around the world today.

[O_Gardino]

I overreacted with how bad the Suns were playing due to 1 1/2 games at Sacramento, so Ill try not to overreact with the team playing well for 1 1/2 games. Excited to see the rest of the games this week.

This. There are some salient points to take away:

- If a team decides to double your stars and/or pack the paint, the right counter is to have deadly three point shooters. And the three point shooters were deadly indeed. There will be nights where Cam, Bridges, and Crowder aren't hitting their shots -- but that's what Galloway is for. I'm loving the team construction. Along these lines, the ball movement was fantastic. Dario's skip pass stood out to me but everyone really had great passes.

- When the Pellies decided to contest the Suns' outside shots, it gave very nice driving lanes to the two Cams and Bridges.

- But the reality is that the game was won by defense. I can't say enough about the long arms of the Cams and Bridges. But Ayton really deserves a lot of credit. When he's hustling like that and anchoring the defense, he plays a vital role...

I thought that Ayton was very active on the boards. It seems like he is convinced that his role is to be good defensively, and so that means he shouldn't be aggressive offensively. Did still see some good offensive boards from him.

I don't think that is entirely fair. He scored from deep position inside a few times. But the right role for him on a night like that is the Dwight Howard or Tyson Chandler role -- anchor the defense, rebound any misses, and score putbacks off the rebounds.

Whether or not this turns into his permanent role is up to him. The team might not need anything more to go far, especially in this era. Yet, I'm hoping that the Paul-Ayton pick-and-roll turns into a thing of beauty with time. It would turn the Suns into real title contenders if the Cams and Bridges continue playing at this level.

OK, it's fair to give DA credit for an active game overall. I gave him some shit at the start of the game, but he did keep his energy level up better last night.

[O_Gardino]

I went full Superbone. Sorry for the response-spam.

[Indy]

I went full Superbone. Sorry for the response-spam.

I like those responses.

[In2ition]

Does anybody at this point think DA is ever going to be anything but a less motivated, slightly better offensive touch Clint Capela?

He's still young, and I think he can be more. He's just thinking too much every time he touches the ball, imo. Trust me, I want him to be more aggressive, dunk everything and intimidate opposing teams and players, but idk what his problem is. It's like he's afraid of dunking the ball, maybe because the rim hurts his hands when he goes hard at it? I have no clue on the cause for this.