Trail Blazers @ Suns Monday game thread 1-1-2024

Yuma

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Wish we had a mixture of Beal and Book at handling the ball and at drives. Beal is more forceful but often get into too many collapsing defenders and TOs. Book ends up with jump shots most of the time. It's up to the coaches to find suiting plays. Bol Bol surprised everybody in this game, though maybe due to lesser competition. Okogie tried to facilitate with good results, particularly targeting Bol maybe by design as both were on the court together. Grant started to hit well and this time our defense responded well. It's an easy game in the end as the Blazers really bad.
Defense had a good run, while our offense struggled tonight.
 

1982baskets

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Solid. Played a really good PG role tonight. Honestly, with KD out and Book having an off night, Beal lead the charge!
That's why I was talking about the impact of having the 3 of them unable to play together. The team was built with them being able to do what you're seeing. Especially Beal and Book. Without a PG, Beal and Book are key to having a high level offense. And if only one is out there, it's so easy for a team to just put 2 bodies or a defensive scheme to limit one of them (especially Booker). With Beal, if he's out there too, playing well. You can run dual guard/PG schemes and throw off the opposing defense. Always keep pressure.

Don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying if we had say 20 games of Beal/Book/KD instead of 3, our record would be a bit better. We'd probably be in the top 5 of the West, considering our schedule.
 

Peter Sheldon

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What’s up with Booker? Felt like his shot has been off for a month. Those midrange gummies used to be automatic. Now I fully expect a miss every time. Eyesight, injury? His passing and defense has been fairly good.
 

Yuma

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What’s up with Booker? Felt like his shot has been off for a month. Those midrange gummies used to be automatic. Now I fully expect a miss every time. Eyesight, injury? His passing and defense has been fairly good.
Maybe celebrated New Years Eve too much last night? It does seem like he's worried about getting guys involved more than scoring. That probably resets his mindset so he's not anticipating setting opposing defenses up to score. Could also just be the minutes and his legs not being under the shot just enough for the miss.
 

Yuma

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That's why I was talking about the impact of having the 3 of them unable to play together. The team was built with them being able to do what you're seeing. Especially Beal and Book. Without a PG, Beal and Book are key to having a high level offense. And if only one is out there, it's so easy for a team to just put 2 bodies or a defensive scheme to limit one of them (especially Booker). With Beal, if he's out there too, playing well. You can run dual guard/PG schemes and throw off the opposing defense. Always keep pressure.

Don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying if we had say 20 games of Beal/Book/KD instead of 3, our record would be a bit better. We'd probably be in the top 5 of the West, considering our schedule.
Yes and it resets the lineup so we get more guys in the second team like Gordon, and Allen, which will help with bench scoring. We also had a good stretch where Beal and Gordon got some scoring for the second unit.
 

95pro

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Good to see the big guy get some minutes and double-figure scoring. Even 1 or 2 3pt shooting. Use him more as those 6 fouls can become important.
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This is a legit finish within the context of nba rules, none of this 1 dribble BS from guys like Giannis and Lebron where they take 5 steps to dunk it.
 

mjb21aztd

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Nice dub to w vs blazers good gms by book beal nurik really liking nurik touguhness over lazy river da reboundin lol

420 edible gummy to w :)

Tides are changin in az sports i feel it :)

Posted late was exhausted after holiday craziness lol
 
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