Mavericks @ Suns Wednesday game thread 12-23-2020 (Season Opener)

[AzStevenCal]

Phone died during Halftime.

The good: Booker overall, Bridges, the Cams, Galloway, Jalen Smith, Crowder's energy and hustle, and of course the win.

The bad: Ayton, Carter, Booker's turnovers and 4th quarter (other than his score at the end), Crowder's plus-minus and shooting.

The ugly: Jones and especially Paul. Outside of one late jumpshot (after having missed a number of others), I see nothing promising in how CP3 has played with the Suns. I still can't help but think we would be better off with Rubio and spending the extra money on the front court.

The good: We won the game.

The bad: We are 6-3 against the Mavericks during the Luka era, not sure a win means that much.

The ugly: Our inability to play defense without fouling.

 

[Mainstreet]

I'm glad the Mavericks opted to go with Cauley-Stein off the bench instead of Boban. He is always a match-up nightmare.

 

[Mainstreet]

I will take this comment by Rick Carlise as a compliment for the Suns:

"Phoenix plays an aggressive, persistent, agitating style of basketball."

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[ArizonaSportsFan]

Like it or not, Luka is one of THE faces of the league. The NBA probably tells their announcers to hype him up as much as they can.

Not only that, they were promoting the hell out of the Christmas day game versus the Lakers. Can't really say "Don't worry, you get to see this same performance after opening gifts Friday morning!"

 

[Mainstreet]

Ayton playing tough inside surrounded by Maverick defenders.

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[sdscard4]

Ayton playing tough inside surrounded by Maverick defenders.

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Kept the momentum with us
Was a huge rebound for Ayton.
Dallas gets that rebound it could swing the game

 

[Suns_fan69]

Booker also impressed me defensively. I can't find a video of the play, but early on he was caught out on a switch with Powell (I think), fought him hard to deny super deep post position, sagged back when the ball rotated to the corner, turned and got a body on Powell instead of looking at the shot when it went up and boxed him out nicely. It's one of those cliched 'doesn't show up on the box score' type plays but I was really impressed with the dedication to playing good defense.

If he can be even average on defense it will really help the team defense.

 

[95pro]

Booker also impressed me defensively. I can't find a video of the play, but early on he was caught out on a switch with Powell (I think), fought him hard to deny super deep post position, sagged back when the ball rotated to the corner, turned and got a body on Powell instead of looking at the shot when it went up and boxed him out nicely. It's one of those cliched 'doesn't show up on the box score' type plays but I was really impressed with the dedication to playing good defense.

If he can be even average on defense it will really help the team defense.

He also played Luka solid on what should have been an offensive foul

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

Phone died during Halftime.

The good: Booker overall, Bridges, the Cams, Galloway, Jalen Smith, Crowder's energy and hustle, and of course the win.

The bad: Ayton, Carter, Booker's turnovers and 4th quarter (other than his score at the end), Crowder's plus-minus and shooting.

The ugly: Jones and especially Paul. Outside of one late jumpshot (after having missed a number of others), I see nothing promising in how CP3 has played with the Suns. I still can't help but think we would be better off with Rubio and spending the extra money on the front court.

He had a big steal and free throws late in the game when the offense stalled out. The defensive intensity and attention to detail are obviously connected to him as well.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

The good: We won the game.

The bad: We are 6-3 against the Mavericks during the Luka era, not sure a win means that much.

The ugly: Our inability to play defense without fouling.

We held the league’s best offense to an ORTG 16 points per 100 possessions below their average.

I would describe that as playing good defense.

 

[AzStevenCal]

We held the league’s best offense to an ORTG 16 points per 100 possessions below their average.

I would describe that as playing good defense.

The key part of that statement was "without fouling". And it mostly was a knock on the refs for falling for Doncic's antics and the antics of a few of his teammates. But yeah, take away the 5 or 6 bad foul calls and we played very good defense.

 

[95pro]

We held the league’s best offense to an ORTG 16 points per 100 possessions below their average.

I would describe that as playing good defense.

hopefully it’s an identity we can establish so we can get some of those calls to be non-calls

 

[1Sun]

He had a big steal and free throws late in the game when the offense stalled out. The defensive intensity and attention to detail are obviously connected to him as well.

For the most part anything positive he contributed was more in a coaching sense than a playing sense. His shooting was still terrible, his assist to turnover ratio was still mediocre, and while the team overall was defending with intensity, Paul has been among the worst one-on-one defenders as his man keeps just driving right past him. He still looks old and slow, and certainly not worth what he is getting paid or what we gave up for him. Specifically, I am not seeing any sign at all that we will see the Chris Paul of last season ever again, and this team needs the Chris Paul of last season (not broken-down, should-be-retired-and-coaching Chris Paul) in order to make the playoffs.

 

[Cheesebeef]

We held the league’s best offense to an ORTG 16 points per 100 possessions below their average.

I would describe that as playing good defense.

best offense without it's second best All-Star caliber player.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Great win by suns i unfortunately fell zzzz round halftime

Cool to see was a great team effort from highlights crowder semmed to do well and hit a 3

How did smith do in 2nd half

And paul doing what he does

 

[Finito]

best offense without it's second best All-Star caliber player.

i don’t consider KP an all star caliber player anymore. He hasn’t been healthy in a few years.

 

[Cheesebeef]

i don’t consider KP an all star caliber player anymore. He hasn’t been healthy in a few years.

maybe not, but last year, he played 57 of 72 games, averaging 20 ppg, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks per game which helped the Mavs rank as the number 1 offense in the league. Saying we shut down the number 1 offense last night playing without a guy of that caliber is a specious argument.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

maybe not, but last year, he played 57 of 72 games, averaging 20 ppg, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks per game which helped the Mavs rank as the number 1 offense in the league. Saying we shut down the number 1 offense last night playing without a guy of that caliber is a specious argument.

Their offense is only marginally better with him on the floor. He was essentially a non factor in their offensive rating last year because he scores so inefficiently.

Edit: TBF he probably would have had a better game the Powell did, so there is that.

 

[Finito]

maybe not, but last year, he played 57 of 72 games, averaging 20 ppg, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks per game which helped the Mavs rank as the number 1 offense in the league. Saying we shut down the number 1 offense last night playing without a guy of that caliber is a specious argument.

you can only play the guys in front of you. We won so I don’t see the complaint.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

The key part of that statement was "without fouling". And it mostly was a knock on the refs for falling for Doncic's antics and the antics of a few of his teammates. But yeah, take away the 5 or 6 bad foul calls and we played very good defense.

My point is that the complete defensive performance, fouls included, was actually elite. The whistle was tight, as you noted, which made it even more impressive. Bridges is top top.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

best offense without it's second best All-Star caliber player.

As I noted elsewhere, the Mavs’ ORTG was better without the Zinger last year than with him, in a pretty good sample.

 

[RagMMA]

Luca had 32p 8r 5a. That's not the numbers of someone who was defended well. I love Bridges and he did a good job but let's stop acting like he shut him down.

We played like a team that hasn't had time to gell yet. It will get better.

I too am not impressed with Paul and ist kinda what I expected it would be, but he's a Sun now and there's nothing we can do about but hope. 40+mil is not was you pay for 5 assists a game or an OFF the floor general. Can we stop acting like he's some kind of saviour until he does some damn thing.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Luca had 32p 8r 5a. That's not the numbers of someone who was defended well. I love Bridges and he did a good job but let's stop acting like he shut him down.

We played like a team that hasn't had time to gell yet. It will get better.

I too am not impressed with Paul and ist kinda what I expected it would be, but he's a Sun now and there's nothing we can do about but hope. 40+mil is not was you pay for 5 assists a game or an OFF the floor general. Can we stop acting like he's some kind of saviour until he does some damn thing.

Are you serious? You do realize that he got those points on 11-26 from the field right?

Also they did a good job of trying to force Doncic to beat them instead of collapsing on him and allowing for kick outs for open threes and the game plan worked out very well.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

Luca had 32p 8r 5a. That's not the numbers of someone who was defended well. I love Bridges and he did a good job but let's stop acting like he shut him down.

We played like a team that hasn't had time to gell yet. It will get better.

I too am not impressed with Paul and ist kinda what I expected it would be, but he's a Sun now and there's nothing we can do about but hope. 40+mil is not was you pay for 5 assists a game or an OFF the floor general. Can we stop acting like he's some kind of saviour until he does some damn thing.

Au contraire. Bridges held the Mavs’ engine down and was largely responsible for the elite defensive performance. Luka getting 30/5/5 is standard. His overall efficiency and the team effects were enormous.

 

[Hoop Head]

Luca had 32p 8r 5a. That's not the numbers of someone who was defended well. I love Bridges and he did a good job but let's stop acting like he shut him down.

We played like a team that hasn't had time to gell yet. It will get better.

I too am not impressed with Paul and ist kinda what I expected it would be, but he's a Sun now and there's nothing we can do about but hope. 40+mil is not was you pay for 5 assists a game or an OFF the floor general. Can we stop acting like he's some kind of saviour until he does some damn thing.

Booker only had 22 points but I don't think anyone who saw the game would say the Mavs played great D on him. You need to watch games to see good or great defense. Its not something easily discernable from a box score.