Suns @ Lakers Sunday game thread 5-9-2021

[mjb21aztd]

Warriors will be a hard w also on road.... hope a better suns team shows up

Oh well get losing vibe out before poffs i guess

 

[Mainstreet]

Ayton with a couple of late baskets.

 

[95pro]

Can stix get lasik already. Just seeing him with those goggles on full time, eh doesn’t inspire me

 

[elindholm]

He’s going to end the season on a pretty pathetic run and then likely get crushed in the playoffs. How do you give that guy an extension? And at what amount of money?

No way should the Suns extend Ayton this summer. They still hold all the cards in '22. I had previous been in favor of seeing if he'd accept a below-max extension this summer (even though he might not), but now I don't think they should offer anything. There's a good chance that Ayton's best years are already behind him.

 

[Evil Ash]

i just can’t buy that a team going on the road, against a team they’re likely to play in the playoffs comes out with lack of effort. I saw a team get dominated from the jump by bigger size.

and honestly, Ash, if they came out overlooking their likely playoff opponent missing a bunch of guys after getting the snot kicked out of them by the Spurs in a similar scenario not that long ago, this team doesn’t have anything close to what it takes mentally to win a round against anyone.

No argument on any of this. We started off with an awful effort against a team that is a bad matchup for us. I have no idea why but I can hypothesize.

We have enough with the physical hurdle of some of these matchups, we don't need to double down and add mental hurdles as well.

This team for whatever reason has made things harder on themselves than they should. Keeping those habits and our playoff run will be very short

 

[95pro]

Bridges has to make that

 

[Mainstreet]

Bridges has to make that

That would have helped.

 

[Cheesebeef]

No argument on any of this. We started off with an awful effort against a team that is a bad matchup for us. I have no idea why but I can hypothesize.

We have enough with the physical hurdle of some of these matchups, we don't need to double down and add mental hurdles as well.

This team for whatever reason has made things harder on themselves than they should. Keeping those habits and our playoff run will be very short

fair enough.

I’ll be honest, I don’t think this team can even beat this Lakers team if LeBron doesn’t play. I don’t think they’d get routed like they will if LeBron’s healthy. But their size alone sans LeBron likely overwhelms us in 6 games.

they’re just the wrong team for us to play in every way shape or form, from physicality to athletically to playoff experience.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I actually think we’d have a better shot with LeBron playing and Davis sitting.

 

[Proximo]

Bridges has to make that

seems to short arm those every time late.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I actually think we’d have a better shot with LeBron playing and Davis sitting. Their size is their greatest weapon against us. Especially because Ayton has played like a big soft bitch lately. He doesn’t have much help, but he doesn’t provide much against the biggest front lines either.

 

[Evil Ash]

Craig reportedly has ice on his knee. The Suns need him down the stretch.

We're pretty much a lock for the 2 seed at this point. might be a good time to start resting guys

 

[95pro]

Ayton was bumped for sure by Caruso. If that was Davis or lebron theyd get the call for sure

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Suns had a lot of late opportunities to make this a game. Couldn’t convert. This lakers team intimidates them.

 

[Mainstreet]

We're pretty much a lock for the 2 seed at this point. might be a good time to start resting guys

Yeah, especially since no one seems to want it.

 

[95pro]

There was an illegal D by Gasol where he was just allowed to camp out no where near his guy. That wasn’t called. Compete bull crap all night long

 

[Mainstreet]

Final:

Lakers 123 - Suns 110

 

[Finito]

they also need Ayton to play like the number 1 pick in the draft if they ever want to beat this team. Davis will dominate us.

even if Ayton does we aren’t beating a healthy Lebron and AD nobody is. So why get worked up over it.

 

[Evil Ash]

There was an illegal D by Gasol where he was just allowed to camp out no where near his guy. That wasn’t called. Compete bull crap all night long

It wasn't why we lost but the officiating was complete trash all night long

 

[Evil Ash]

Suns had a lot of late opportunities to make this a game. Couldn’t convert. This lakers team intimidates them.

Some of it was intimidation, some of it was exhaustion. Thats why you can't dig yourself that much a hole early

 

[Finito]

lt’s not hindsight. I was screaming for him to make a move before the deadline.

the problem is blindingly obvious. We have ONE defensive big on the roster.

but that’s easier said than done this isn’t a fantasy world. It takes two to make deals. We can’t really match salaries in a trade cause Booker and Paul are the only ones making money and really who would you want to trade as far as buyouts guys have to want to come here.

 

[Cheesebeef]

even if Ayton does we aren’t beating a healthy Lebron and AD nobody is. So why get worked up over it.

because he shouldn’t be this weak period. He’s both the biggest possible solution and biggest problem on this team that will either make it a legit title contender or keep It a pretender.

and I don’t know what the answer is.

 

[Cheesebeef]

but that’s easier said than done this isn’t a fantasy world. It takes two to make deals. We can’t really match salaries in a trade cause Booker and Paul are the only ones making money and really who would you want to trade as far as buyouts guys have to want to come here.

yeah. Hands were relatively tied during the season. They could have gone for Ibaka instead of Crowder last off-season but Crowder has been a big part of their success and Ibaka ended up hurt all season.

they are what they are. A really good team. Whether they become a title contender all depends on what Jones does this off-season.

which unfortunately looks like it’s going to be starting sooner rather than later.

 

[Cheesebeef]

We're pretty much a lock for the 2 seed at this point. might be a good time to start resting guys

can you give them that much rest though? They’ll get almost a week off with the play-in tournament alone.

And if we do start resting guys, do we want our young team to go into the playoffs stumbling? The only guy who really needs rest is CP3. Maybe Crowder. The rest of these guys are kids and shouldn’t be run down at this point.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

because he shouldn’t be this weak period. He’s both the biggest possible solution and biggest problem on this team that will either make it a legit title contender or keep It a pretender.

and I don’t know what the answer is.

Unfortunately, I think we do know the answer, we just don’t like it.

 

[Raindog]

Indeed, it does seem the Suns are continually intimidated by the Lakers (or similar teams like Clippers, Nets, Celtics, probably Warriors when they are back to full strength, etc.) - veteran teams with superstars that are going to get calls from the refs. The Suns turtle up against those types of teams, and don't really have the fiery leadership (aside from Paul to some limited extent) to overcome that.

If they want to really contend for the title, they need to find a way to overcome that, or at least get another leader type (or two) here to instill it. Otherwise, they are just going to end up like very good but not great Suns teams of the past - nice regular season records, but total failures in the post-season.

 

[elindholm]

There was an illegal D by Gasol where he was just allowed to camp out no where near his guy. That wasn’t called. Compete bull crap all night long

There was also the play where the Suns swarmed Davis and he traveled about four times before finally drawing a foul. But that's part of playing against the Lakers. It's never going to change, so you just have to account for it.