Suns @ Mavericks Friday Playoff game thread, R2, 5-6-2022 - Game 3

[Finito]

Last night I kept thinking about all those turnovers, Ayton getting pushed under the basket and those out of bound calls that went to the Mavericks.

The Suns need more production from their bench and Cam Payne has been more of the problem than the answer. They need to get Biyombo and Holiday some minutes when the bench is not producing.

Also what happened to valuing the ball?

Chris Paul 4 points and 7 turnovers

Cam Payne 0 points

Those are the two guys who are supposed to run our offense. Good lord that’s bad.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Chris Paul 4 points and 7 turnovers

Cam Payne 0 points

Those are the two guys who are supposed to run our offense. Good lord that’s bad.

Yup. That’s the worst pg play we’ve gotten in a long time. Paul is only averaging 5 assists in the series so far. But he’s averaging 6 rebounds (Ayton should be embarrassed to be averaging only 1.3 more) and 60% shooting.

 

[AsUpRoDiGy]

I'm glad we saved our worst basketball of the season for the playoffs.

Ayton should easily be averaging 30/15, but watching him get pushed around so easily in the paint is laughable. Thinking back to his interview where he says he loves it when teams put a midget on him... well clearly he doesn't love it that much because he looks completely disinterested 90% of the time.

Also... Holiday > Cam.

 

[Dback Jon]

A lot of the Suns issues are on Monty and his obstinacy about rotations, timeouts, adjustments, not getting on the refs, not limiting playing time when guys aren't producing. I'm not saying he is sinking the Suns' chances... yet. But if we lose this year with a repeat of the same things that killed us against Milwaukee last year, you do have to start to question whether his coaching "philosophy" is a net plus or minus in the post-season, anyway.

I don’t think Monty is a playoff coach

 

[Finito]

I'm glad we saved our worst basketball of the season for the playoffs.

Ayton should easily be averaging 30/15, but watching him get pushed around so easily in the paint is laughable. Thinking back to his interview where he says he loves it when teams put a midget on him... well clearly he doesn't love it that much because he looks completely disinterested 90% of the time.

Also... Holiday > Cam.

Easily 30/15 huh

I’ll sit back and wait for you to tell me all the centers in the history of the NBA who averaged 30/15 in the playoffs

 

[95pro]

the mavs earned the win and we deserved the loss
but i can't help but mention that several really awful calls killed our momentum

an interesting one was the no call on Luka when he raked his hand over Paul's face after Paul took the ball out of his hands. but the ref made up for that one with a call on Luka seconds later

I think we got within 7 and a mav tipped the ball out over cp3, which was obviously in the direction the mav player swung his arms.

There was another Ayton just let go out of bounds and they called it mavs ball. Suns should just not take any chances on those types of plays. And another happened in the first quarter I think.

What set the time was Book picking up a cheap cheap foul to start the game. That was crap.

 

[mojorizen7]

Suns just need to get more scoring from the bench. Comparing to last years run...adding McGee has been a front court boost. Last year Payne and Johnson ignited the bench and provided points. Both have struggled.

I'm mostly disappointed in CJ because he's a good young player with upside. He's just in a rut.
Payne's team concept IQ and situation awareness is just awful. He's going to come in and shoot no matter what the defense or his teammates are doing. Period. Terrible.

I'd rather see Holiday get a crack at running the bench offense.

 

[Raindog]

I don’t think Monty is a playoff coach

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt through this playoffs and see what happens... but yeah, it may turn out that's the case.

 

[Hoop Head]

People need to chill. I swear, this second guessing Monty after CP3 played the worst playoff game of his career.

This was the Mavs best punch and how we come out tomorrow will be interesting but this idea we need to start looking past Monty is a bit asinine. If we can't win with Monty as the coach then we weren't going to win with whoever is dreamt up to take his place. Give a little credit to the guy who put us in this position.

Has Cam Payne been off? Yes. Is he the reason we're going to win or lose this series? No. It'd be nice to see Holiday but he's not going to suddenly become a difference maker.

 

[Phrazbit]

Cam Payne has a gear that Holiday just doesn't have. I get why Monty keeps playing Payne, he is hoping that Cam will regain his form, the dude was aces for us while Paul was out but so far in the playoffs he has a PER of 3.93, a shocking number. I think we need to keep giving Cam chances but I also would really like to see Holiday get a look here and there. But the best version of the Suns is one where Payne is playing at the level we've seen before, we can't bench him entirely, we gotta hope he gets better.

 

[Hoop Head]

Cam Payne has a gear that Holiday just doesn't have. I get why Monty keeps playing Payne, he is hoping that Cam will regain his form, the dude was aces for us while Paul was out but so far in the playoffs he has a PER of 3.93, a shocking number. I think we need to keep giving Cam chances but I also would really like to see Holiday get a look here and there. But the best version of the Suns is one where Payne is playing at the level we've seen before, we can't bench him entirely, we gotta hope he gets better.

I agree with this. I think with Craig out and the matchups this series that the Suns can play Holiday and Payne together with Shamet playing some SF. That allows Holiday to get some run and see what version of Payne we have also. Chances are though Payne won't be much worse than Holiday even if he's off offensively because he's still a good defender while being someone that can't be left open on the perimeter either. Holiday is small and while he's a tenacious defender that doesn't help him offensively when Dallas' guards are much bigger and can lock him up much easier than Payne.

 

[AZ due I love BBQ]

Points in the paint. Mavs 50, Suns 32.

Under no circumstances can that happen. There is no excuse. We are 3 centers deep.

DA doesn't play like a true center and the suns #4s Crowder and CamJ hang out around three point line too much instead of crashing board.

 

[AZ due I love BBQ]

It shouldn't come down to holladay or Payne...ever


Suns will still win series

 

[Cheesebeef]

People need to chill. I swear, this second guessing Monty after CP3 played the worst playoff game of his career.

This was the Mavs best punch and how we come out tomorrow will be interesting but this idea we need to start looking past Monty is a bit asinine. If we can't win with Monty as the coach then we weren't going to win with whoever is dreamt up to take his place. Give a little credit to the guy who put us in this position.

Has Cam Payne been off? Yes. Is he the reason we're going to win or lose this series? No. It'd be nice to see Holiday but he's not going to suddenly become a difference maker.

That wasn’t the Mavs best punch. Their role players were aces but Luka was actually pretty terrible in Game 4 shooting 9/25.

 

[Phrazbit]

That wasn’t the Mavs best punch. Their role players were aces but Luka was actually pretty terrible in Game 4 shooting 9/25.

I think it's by the design of our defense. We've covered the Mavericks well, we just are playing like pig **** on offense. They need to clean it up and hit (and be willing to take) the wide open shots we're screwing up.

Also, stop throwing the ball out of bounds and passing it to the wrong team.

Fix either of those problems and we will be punching our ticket to the WCF in a few days.

Our boys also need to hit the deck every single time Luka lowers his freaking shoulder into their chest... there is a good chance a whistle is coming regardless, at least force the ref to consider the offensive foul. If we had challenged the play when Luka bulldozed Paul for Paul's 3rd foul, I think it completely changes the game. Instead of 3 on Paul it is 3 on Luka and he sits for almost the entire 2nd quarter and would have had to play a very different style in the 3rd.

 

[95pro]

I think it's by the design of our defense. We've covered the Mavericks well, we just are playing like pig **** on offense. They need to clean it up and hit (and be willing to take) the wide open shots we're screwing up.

Also, stop throwing the ball out of bounds and passing it to the wrong team.

Fix either of those problems and we will be punching our ticket to the WCF in a few days.

Our boys also need to hit the deck every single time Luka lowers his freaking shoulder into their chest... there is a good chance a whistle is coming regardless, at least force the ref to consider the offensive foul. If we had challenged the play when Luka bulldozed Paul for Paul's 3rd foul, I think it completely changes the game. Instead of 3 on Paul it is 3 on Luka and he sits for almost the entire 2nd quarter and would have had to play a very different style in the 3rd.

As much as I hate working and baiting the refs, I agree with flopping at every chance considering playing legit defense will only draw a foul anyway.