Grizzlies @ Suns 11-4-18

[Proximo]

Ayton has to learn how to operate from the elbow.

There is no reason he could not play exactly like Amare used to.

 

[SirStefan32]

Canaan has been playing very well. I hope Bridges keeps getting more and more playing time. His defense is outstanding, he doesn't make many mistakes, and he can shoot and pass.

 

[HeHasRosen]

He only shot the ball 4 times. I don't think settling down is what he needs to do. He needs to be more assertive but playing against Marc Gasol, I can see how he would struggle some. Marc Gasol is sort of a mix between DeAndre Jordan and Nikola Jokic. He's got range, can pass really well, guard the rim, and grab rebounds easily. I think Marc is way better than Pau ever was but since he's been stuck in Memphis for his prime and entire career he hasn't had the chance to show everyone he's better than Pau.

What i mean by that is it seems as if he panics when he gets the ball. He needs to assess the situation. Backing down more and being more aggressive is definitely needed. He needs to not look to pass or shoot immediately, but instead take his time and work in the post more.

 

[Cheesebeef]

stoked to see another big time Booker step up in crunch time... good seeing Bridges stroking his shot and above all else, nice to finally get a W again.

for those who watched... Ayton only shot 4 times? What was going on there?

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeeeaaaahhhhh!!! Nice W!

 

[SirStefan32]

stoked to see another big time Booker step up in crunch time... good seeing Bridges stroking his shot and above all else, nice to finally get a W again.

for those who watched... Ayton only shot 4 times? What was going on there?

He was timid. He kept turning the ball over too. He had a typical rookie game, but still contributed in other ways. He rebounded well, had quite a few assists, had some blocks and challenged a few others. He actually looked pretty good defensively.

 

[1tinsoldier]

for those who watched... Ayton only shot 4 times? What was going on there?

game notes:
1. this is the second game in a row our starting pg had only 2 assists.
2. some reasons Ayton took only 4 shots?
--a. he got psyched out on two foot shuffles in 30 seconds (that i didn't notice),
----and later had a drive blocked.
--b. he had it under the basket and, as EJ said, instead of "powering it up" through 2 defenders, passed it out.
--c. see #1

 

[Hoop Head]

All of our starters plus Bridges were a plus. Canaan had only two assists but led the Suns with a +10. And Jackson was a glaring -15 in his 13 minutes with 4 turnovers, tied for second worst. Holmes at backup Center had 6 rebounds in 11 minutes, half of which were offensive boards. And Ayton led with 3 steals and 2 blocks.

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I don't think people should look for Canaan to have high assist numbers. With scoring up across the league, the league leaders average a few less than Nash did in his time here. If someone does break the 10 assist a game mark it's typically enough to lead the league. I think it's a little odd how scoring has gone up but PG's assist numbers haven't, really. Some of that is more players making plays also. It's not uncommon to have 2 or 3 players average 5 or more assists along with the PG averaging 7-9. Assist to turnover ratio seems to be more important to measure if a PG is a good playmaker and Canaan is decent in that regard, typically.

Booker will probably lead the team in assists per game but that's not because he's playing a lot of PG. It's more that he is our primary ball handler, or he has the ball in his hands more than anyone else does, and that would probably be the case even if we had an average starting PG like a Darren Collison, Jeremy Lin, or Patty Mills. The motion offense seems to spread the ball around a lot also, which leads to more players getting assists. I know we were 4th in the league before the Raptors game at assists per game, which I thought was surprising since we were losing. Turnovers have killed us though.

 

[Proximo]

Canaan has been playing very well. I hope Bridges keeps getting more and more playing time. His defense is outstanding, he doesn't make many mistakes, and he can shoot and pass.

Yes, I don’t know why Igor would not want him on the floor as much as possible.

He just doesn’t really make any negative plays. Is in complete control. Basically he is jackson’s Polar opposite.

 

[SirStefan32]

Yes, I don’t know why Igor would not want him on the floor as much as possible.

He just doesn’t really make any negative plays. Is in complete control. Basically he is jackson’s Polar opposite.

The advantage of drafting a guy who played in college for four years. Bridges is really becoming one of my favorite players.

 

[Hoop Head]

Our biggest problem right now as a team is we give up the most steals per game at 11.3 while only averaging 6.4 of our own. Atlanta & Dallas are tied for #29 right now giving up 9.7 steals a game. It will take a while before we move out of last place there, if we do, but that needs to get better. We need to quit turning it over altogether, but most of our turnovers are steals and that means our opponent has an easy chance at transition baskets. We're #29 at turnovers a game with 17.6 a game, so all but 6 of our turnovers are steals, typically. Atlanta is 30 with 18.3 turnovers but us giving up more steals is a bigger issue that needs to be solved and doing that should help lower our turnovers and help keep deficits from getting out of control.

I'm not sure if today's games are worked into those stats but we had 24 turnovers, 25 assists, and gave up 13 steals. So everything is around our average. We need to get those steal numbers under control. I guess the silver lining is most teams we've played are good defensive teams. Golden State, San Antonio, Toronto, Denver, and Memphis are all good defensive teams. Since we've played Memphis twice now, that makes 6 of our 9 games against good defensive teams.


http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/miscellaneous-per-game

 

[Willie D]

Our biggest problem right now as a team is we give up the most steals per game ...

Partly due to making Booker play PG instead of SG. That sort of thing can be worked out over time. I hear Jason Kidd, Kevin Johnson, Steve Nash and Kyle Macy are all available to help out.

But the "wilting down the stretch" angle is worse. Luckily they reversed that trend tonight...for a while.

 

[elindholm]

Our biggest problem right now as a team is we give up the most steals per game at 11.3 while only averaging 6.4 of our own.

That's the biggest problem?

 

[AzStevenCal]

Partly due to making Booker play PG instead of SG. That sort of thing can be worked out over time. I hear Jason Kidd, Kevin Johnson, Steve Nash and Kyle Macy are all available to help out.

But the "wilting down the stretch" angle is worse. Luckily they reversed that trend tonight...for a while.

So far, I think we've done more wilting in the second quarter than down the stretch.

 

[1tinsoldier]

Canaan has been playing like a mini shooting guard
he cannot get the ball through to Ayton

season averages:
Canaan: 9pt, 3 assists, 2 turnovers in 26 minutes
Jackson: 8pt, 2 assists, 3 turnovers in 21 minutes

i understand Igor is looking to get some wins
but, imo, the suns should focus on development this season
Canaan has no future upside. i'd have him come off the bench
and i'd start Okobo
like Bridges, he seems to have a solid bb IQ. with experience and confidence he could become legit

more Canaan is less development for Bridges and Ayton (he has no chemistry with Ayton)

 

[Suns_fan69]

The advantage of drafting a guy who played in college for four years. Bridges is really becoming one of my favorite players.

For the team to succeed, they really need someone to knock down open shots so the defense can't just sit on Booker. Game 1 was a combination of Ariza, TJ and Jackson, tonight it was Bridges. He had a fantastic 4th quarter.

 

[TJ]

game notes:
1. this is the second game in a row our starting pg had only 2 assists.
2. some reasons Ayton took only 4 shots?
--a. he got psyched out on two foot shuffles in 30 seconds (that i didn't notice),
----and later had a drive blocked.
--b. he had it under the basket and, as EJ said, instead of "powering it up" through 2 defenders, passed it out.
--c. see #1

In no world should Ayton only have 4 FGAs in one game. That’s on Igor and the guards to create plays to get him going underneath. If he gets 15 FGA/game, he’ll routinely score 20+.

 

[Sunburn]

It wasn't just on the team that Ayton only had 4 field goal attempts. He played incredibly passive. It's frustrating seeing a 7'1", 250 lbs monster play like that. I fear he is not an alpha, go to type player.

 

[Hoop Head]

It wasn't just on the team that Ayton only had 4 field goal attempts. He played incredibly passive. It's frustrating seeing a 7'1", 250 lbs monster play like that. I fear he is not an alpha, go to type player.

I'm glad we won, finally, and snapped our losing streak but losing with Ayton only taking 4 shots could have sent a message to him that he needs to be more assertive. He's not Bender, I don't expect him to fall apart when he's told to look for his shot more. Had Booker and Bridges not had a great 4th quarter, we would have lost.

Speaking of Booker, he is leading the league in 4th quarter scoring right now with 9.8 points a game in the 4th. He's doing that on 56% shooting, 62% from 3pt range, and 3 FT attempts a game also.

https://on.nba.com/2QiJ8U3

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[hcsilla]

One of the keys of the victory was switching Ariza to Bridges on defending Dillon Brooks.

Ariza is a smart, veteran defender who knows all the nuances but he doesn't have the footspeed anymore to keep younger athletes from penetrating. Brooks killed him with straight drives.

Ariza went to the bench, Bridges shut down Brooks and did hit 3P-ers.

 

[Finito]

Didn't Ayton just have 17 and 18 boards the last game? Noes he's a passive bum?

Lol relax he's a rookie. He's still learning his way.

 

[slinslin]

I think it is a bit much to expect from a rookie center, after 1 year of freshman basketball in college to now already faceup and try to score on Gasol off the dribble or iso moves.

Yeah he should probably try to call for the ball more, it is obvious he gets caught ball watching on offense and defense frequently but that is normal for a young rookie.

I think he played well overall. Some of the turnovers was when he was triple teamed from behind and none of his teammates called it out or a botched handoff.

On defense he got caught ball watching a couple of times but overall Memphis only scored very rarely over him. Conley and Gasol especially missed everything when Ayton was on them.

 

[SirStefan32]

Wow, Bridges and Booker scored 23 of the Suns 25 points in the fourth quarter.

 

[82CardsGrad]

When, not if, this teams secures a legit PG and PF, the W’s will flow much more often... until then, I’ll take the rare victory whenever they come...

 

[Carolinacacti]

Bridges is better then S. Marion.