Playoffs: Clippers @ Suns Tuesday game thread 4-25-2023 - Game 5

[elindholm]

And a reason I really don’t worry about rebuilding in 3 years. Guys WANT to play with Book. More guys will the more he’s entrenched as a playoff murderer.

I hope you're right, but I still don't see it. Maybe Jones can be very smart about contract lengths, and make sure that he has major cap space to work with in at least one summer.

 

[GatorAZ]

I

Don't forget Nash against Dallas in 2005. That's still the gold standard.

Against a 58-win team while missing Joe Johnson for most of the series. Still the gold standard.

 

[Covert Rain]

The Suns beat the Clippers 4-1 in the playoffs and this is the best you have?

You are not funny.

Oh stop. That was freaking hilarious and spot on down the stretch even though overall you can’t be unhappy about the 4-1 series win.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I'm not saying just the league wasn't ready or talking head or posters, literally no one expected the Suns to be contenders. That's overachieving. They were a nice story in the bubble who took a chance on a PG no one else wanted and everyone thought was washed in CP3 and made it to the finals. That's overachieving and that's largely why he won coaching awards for the turn around here. He did a lot with a little. Now he doesn't have as much and we're going to see what happens in Denver.

Unexpected doesn’t mean overachieving. Your confusing the two. When Brady took over the pats and won his first super bowl he wasn’t overachieving. He played to his talent level. It was just that no one expected him to be that talented. If he ebbed back to obscurity after that it would have been an overachievement. Nick Foles winning a super bowl was overachieving. No one expected the suns to be good the same way no one expected a 6th round QB to win a super bowl. Both were unexpected but neither were overachieving.

 

[Mainstreet]

Oh stop. That was freaking hilarious and spot on down the stretch.

I thought you would like it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I hope you're right, but I still don't see it. Maybe Jones can be very smart about contract lengths, and make sure that he has major cap space to work with in at least one summer.

I think it’s gonna have to be a trade at some point. A disgruntled Star that we’ll probably use Ayton’s contract… and more future picks three years from now we’ll be able to send.

That said, Jones has to start finding role players in what little draft picks he has.

It will be tricky and will take foresight, but I do think it can happen.

 

[Covert Rain]

I thought you would like it.

I figured you wouldn’t.

 

[Mainstreet]

I figured you wouldn’t.

That's because I value forum rules.

 

[Germz249]

Lets go!!

 

[Covert Rain]

That's because I value forum rules.

I don’t see any moderators agreeing with you. They likely have a good sense of humor too.

 

[TJ]

Love the people who put up with me and my rant. I had a really ****** day and I’m getting a consult tomorrow morning for potential abdominal surgery, so I’m very anxious.

Sorry to whomever I offended.

 

[Covert Rain]

Love the people who put up with me and my rant. I had a really ****** day and I’m getting a consult tomorrow morning for potential abdominal surgery, so I’m very anxious.

Sorry to whomever I offended.

Good luck man! Hope all goes well.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

28.4/7.6/6.2 on 51.8/45.8/95.6 shooting with 1 block and 1 steal per game playing 44 minutes per game.

KD is not too shabby for the series.

 

[Mainstreet]

I don’t see any moderators agreeing with you. They likely have a good sense of humor too.

By all means, join them. I guess you already have.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Love the people who put up with me and my rant. I had a really ****** day and I’m getting a consult tomorrow morning for potential abdominal surgery, so I’m very anxious.

Sorry to whomever I offended.

Good luck dude. Playing the waiting game on a possible surgery sucks out loud.

 

[Covert Rain]

By all means, join them. Maybe you already have.

Huh? Uh…yeah….I have joined the …have a sense of humor team.

 

[clyde2tw]

The team slacked off in this game. In the 1st half, it's lack of blocking open men for off. rebounds. In the 2nd half, after Booker heroics in the 3rd Q, we again lost focus. In the middle of 4th, we fired 3 pt shots that led to fasbreak 3pts from Clippers for 9 straight points. We weren't patient enough on offense then. And then, to make it worse, Monty replaced Okogie with Shamet. Powell finalled got unleashed until Okogie is reinserted. Okogie's defense is really disruptive making the ball handler out of their comfortable rhythms. Powell's final turnover was a witness of that. Refs a couple of times called foul on him I think as makeup calls as Powell is an exordinary actor on the one hand, and Clippers complained about FT disparities on the other.
DA got motivated in this one with a great 1st half, with sharp cuts to basket. In the 2nd half he settled for midrange jumpers and misses. It's good that Monty stuck with Okogie in place of Craig for most of the game. But he seemed unable to positively affect the meltdown in the 4th. Glad it's over.

 

[Hoop Head]

Love the people who put up with me and my rant. I had a really ****** day and I’m getting a consult tomorrow morning for potential abdominal surgery, so I’m very anxious.

Sorry to whomever I offended.

Hope you don't need surgery and if you do, it breezes by without issue. Good luck at your appointment.

 

[Matt L]

Wish we had Lue as a coach. His teams never seem to go into cruise control... unlike what Monty seems to do here.

I like Lue as a coach.. but the clips were in cruise control in the third quarter.

 

[Matt L]

They have a good enough 1 and 2 to be a contender but the 3-10th men aren't championship level guys. Look at title teams throughout history and there's always a clutch shooter off the bench, for example, we don't have that. We don't have a consistent 3rd option either. We don't have a lot of things that make this a championship level roster.

After KD and Book, Ayton is the only other player that would be a starter on probably half the teams in the league. CP3 wouldn't be in the rotation as more than a backup in Boston or Denver, who are legit contenders. Craig and Okogie would be situational role players while they're are 5th and 6th best players. That doesn't make a championship level roster. Monty isn't the issue, depth is.

while you make good points, the biggest problem with Monty is doing nothing when the other team is gaining momentum. we had the better team in each game of this series. in the first game, Ty Lue called a timeout every time we went on a little run.

honestly, if you're a high level coach, you should do everything you can to stop the other team from going on a double digit run. it's especially egregious in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.

 

[Hoop Head]

while you make good points, the biggest problem with Monty is doing nothing when the other team is gaining momentum. we had the better team in each game of this series. in the first game, Ty Lue called a timeout every time we went on a little run.

honestly, if you're a high level coach, you should do everything you can to stop the other team from going on a double digit run. it's especially egregious in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.

He didn't do nothing. He called an early timeout to stifle an early 4th quarter run, thus taking away a timeout he couldn't use when the Clippers momentum continued. Runs will happen, especially when our starters are getting some rest after a huge 3rd quarter to kick off the 4th. You can't always stop runs and since he'd tried earlier we were sort of left to let it play out.

I'm by no means saying he's perfect or even a better coach than Ty Lue but it seems he's getting all the blame for anything this team does, or doesn't do, while receiving no credit when stuff works.

 

[Matt L]

I hope you're right, but I still don't see it. Maybe Jones can be very smart about contract lengths, and make sure that he has major cap space to work with in at least one summer.

Jones should be first to go

 

[Cheesebeef]

while you make good points, the biggest problem with Monty is doing nothing when the other team is gaining momentum. we had the better team in each game of this series. in the first game, Ty Lue called a timeout every time we went on a little run.

honestly, if you're a high level coach, you should do everything you can to stop the other team from going on a double digit run. it's especially egregious in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.

And for me, it’s not just calling the timeouts. It’s knowing how to adjust to the other team’s run and getting that game plan through to the team during the timeout.

I just don’t see that often enough with Monty. For there to be 2 4th quarters in a short series where the offense bogs down and one of the best scorers in the league either gets 1 or 0 shots in 10 minutes of both games, that is just an embarassing lack of adjustment.

Once in a short series is annoying. But to have that happen 2 times in 5 games shows to me that adjustments aren’t being made.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

LOL

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[Muggz]

Weee good game kinda. I almost got kicked out of the FP Center tonight for being "overzealous"!

No this series wasn't pretty but it's behind us now, could have been alot worse, now we have bigger fish to fry.
Put another notch in the LA bedpost clean the sheets and get ready to take Denver to pound town.