Game 9 (In-Season Tournament): Lakers (3-5) @ Phoenix Suns (4-4) | Friday | 8:00 PM

[MrMiyagi]

Big 3: 0-0
Book/KD: 1-1
Book/Beal: 0-0
Beal/KD: 1-1
KD: 2-3
Book: 0-0
Beal: 0-0

Total: 4-5

[enigmatics]

KD had no rest so far. Tells everything about this team depth.

He gets plenty of rest. He's literally out half of every 4th quarter.

[SkyBill40]

Hate to say it, but we could have used... John Wall.

[Slim Charless]

KD had no rest so far. Tells everything about this team depth.

Yeah, that's concerning. When Book comes back, they need to injury manage KD. Give him a few nights off, the last thing we need is him pulling something. I wanna see a Beal/Book pairing as well. I maintain that Beal will eat on this team when everyone gets used to playing with each other.

[Slim Charless]

Hate to say it, but we could have used... John Wall.

Him or Lowry? I think 1 of those guys will be available to sign off the street by the time the trade deadline gets here.

[Jdiddy701]

One thing I noticed in the two games Beal has played, he needs to be a lot more aggressive when KD is not in. And for the love of God, I’m hoping once Book returns, we never see Josh Okogie again. He plays super hard, good rebounder and plays awesome defense but he’s killed us on the offensive end.

I also am not a huge fan of KBD playing with the starting lineup. His jump shot looks awful. I’m sure his % aren’t too bad but I don’t trust him to hit those wide open looks either, especially not in the playoffs. With Grayson, we might be too small, luckily he’s shown to be a really rebounder. Not sure who should start..


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[sunsbg]

Saw a graphic that shows we are better defensive than offensive team so getting Book back will help a lot. Vogel and Young should limit the role players shooting 3s and generally preach better ball movement. As great as KD was a contested shot is still not optimal and him creating open 3s is still bad offense when the guy taking the shot is Okogie/Goodwin.

[SkyBill40]

Hate to say it, but we could have used... John Wall.

Him or Lowry? I think 1 of those guys will be available to sign off the street by the time the trade deadline gets here.

Exactly. We need someone - ANYONE - who has experience running the point.

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[dremill24]

This team is really rough to watch...lazy offense just relying on KD to be Superman in isos. Dumbass defense running double teams for no reason, cant figure out what everyone is doing on screens, and being flippant af off the ball. Doesnt matter who is playing, most of these things are correctable whether healthy or not.

[NapoleonII]

One thing I noticed in the two games Beal has played, he needs to be a lot more aggressive when KD is not in. And for the love of God, I’m hoping once Book returns, we never see Josh Okogie again. He plays super hard, good rebounder and plays awesome defense but he’s killed us on the offensive end.

I also am not a huge fan of KBD playing with the starting lineup. His jump shot looks awful. I’m sure his % aren’t too bad but I don’t trust him to hit those wide open looks either, especially not in the playoffs. With Grayson, we might be too small, luckily he’s shown to be a really rebounder. Not sure who should start..


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Not high on KBD, either. Maybe as a bench piece, energy guy.

I think Grayson Allen could work, if Book can step it up defensively and guard 3's or even KD. Then you really have to team rebound and make sure we're not getting killed on the boards, but Okogie / KBD are just too much of offensive liabilities. Having them play against other teams benches will get more use out of them IMO. Defenses are just too good nowadays if you have a useless player out there on offense.

Allen has a knack for mucking it up, guarding the perimeter pretty well, a 40% knock-down shooter who started with the Bucks last year.

Beal
Allen
Booker
KD
Nurk

KD can guard the Luka/Tatums/Ant/Brons. And then you stick Allen on their best backcourt player, Booker and Beal would guard guys like Cam Reddish/Prince, etc.

[Puff]

Booker is the one dude I wish wasn't missing games. :(

Don't you know that he was too busy polishing up his cars to do rehab so he could be ready too play tonight.

Yeah - and we call Anthony Davis - "Street Clothes"

Hell we now got three "Street Clothes" on our team. HOw do you rank them.

What is going to happen to Book when he turns 27, probably miss more games?

The guys is a fantastic player when available but his reliability is really in questions at this point.

Everyone blames Monty, Ayton and CP3 for our recent collapses, they ain't here, anymore.

What is the excuse now?

James Jones has to be the worst GM in the history of the NBA. How in the world could he put together this roster without at least one legit point guard. When Nurkic is you best passer, we are in real trouble and we are just getting started.

This team is awful to watch as a matter of fact it is fast becoming unwatchable.

Goodnight

[Hitachi77]

To me it’s more about having 2 guys who can create on the court at any given time, that’s why we kinda need all 3 guys. That’s how all 3 guys can play less minutes too. Would be nice to have a 4th though, but we traded Payne for basically no reason at all.

We know we need all 3 in the playoffs anyway, and that’s when the rotations shrink. I feel like losing/blowing reg season games due to resting guys is expected, but I’m hoping we improve in these high leverage situations.

[Saberestar]

Booker is the one dude I wish wasn't missing games.

Don't you know that he was too busy polishing up his cars to do rehab so he could be ready too play tonight.

Yeah - and we call Anthony Davis - "Street Clothes"

Hell we now got three "Street Clothes" on our team. HOw do you rank them.

What is going to happen to Book when he turns 27, probably miss more games?

The guys is a fantastic player when available but his reliability is really in questions at this point.

Everyone blames Monty, Ayton and CP3 for our recent collapses, they ain't here, anymore.

What is the excuse now?

James Jones has to be the worst GM in the history of the NBA. How in the world could he put together this roster without at least one legit point guard. When Nurkic is you best passer, we are in real trouble and we are just getting started.

This team is awful to watch as a matter of fact it is fast becoming unwatchable.

Goodnight

[Revived]

The fact that we have Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal and that’s still not enough to beat the Lakers at home is kinda sad honestly.

Like Suns literally cannot have any actually quality wins unless all of the big 3 is completely healthy. Even the win against the Warriors from game 1 feels like a fluke more than anything really.

[Saberestar]

It's so sad that Okogie is terrible on offense. I mean, he is the first one that has to be really upset because him with a good 3p shoot would get around $10M per year, no doubt in my mind.

Okogie and KBD combined for 1/10 from three, that can tell you everything about this game. The Lakers played for a good amount of minutes some type of zone defense and we couldn't make them pay for that.

Those early 4th quarter minutes without KD are a big problem basically on every game. We need to find a better balance with the lineups.

Tough loss but (you can like him or not) LeBron was too much for us tonight. And this guy is gonna be 39 next month...incredible.

[AtheJ415]

This team is really rough to watch...lazy offense just relying on KD to be Superman in isos. Dumbass defense running double teams for no reason, cant figure out what everyone is doing on screens, and being flippant af off the ball. Doesnt matter who is playing, most of these things are correctable whether healthy or not.

THis is the reality. We play incredibly stupid basketball and the only thing that saves it is crazy performances by all-time great players. We do not even attempt to run real offense in the 4th quarter, and even when we do put Beal or Durant in, we fail to get them shots at all, and the ones they do get are insanely dificult.

This team is poorly coached on both ends. We have had a cupcake schedule so far and have blown 2 games to a TERRIBLE Spurs team and a TERRIBLE Lakers team, including massive leads with mind-boggling decisions as far as timeouts, rotations, and more. There are 3rd graders with 2 years of basketball experience who would question much of what we attempt to do on both ends.

Also, Vogel holds nobody accountable. Eric Gordon has been allowed to play the laziest defense imaginable all season. Okogie and Goodwin take 3 after 3 after 3 in key situations. We fail to get key rebounds while also fail to getting out on the rotation post rebound, turn it over unforced at an astonishing rate, and more.

We have a drastic talent advantage in these games and we shouldn't need Book to save us. We should not need multiple top 5-10 NBA players and a top 30 playe to beat celler dwelling teams.

Book will make us look way better but until or unless Vogel starts actually coaching and improving the team, and until player play better, we will continue to be a paper tiger and the most under-achieving team in the league.

I don't think people fully realize how inexcusable it is to be down 4 losses to the Spurs and Lakers with the greatest offensive weapon of all time on your team and a 20+ point lead in most of those games.

Vogel absolutely sucks. He's a joke.

[AtheJ415]

The fact that we have Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal and that’s still not enough to beat the Lakers at home is kinda sad honestly.

Like Suns literally cannot have any actually quality wins unless all of the big 3 is completely healthy. Even the win against the Warriors from game 1 feels like a fluke more than anything really.

We subbed in Beal and sat Durant and said the offense was okay because Beal was in. Vogel generated 1 shot for Beal. Just 1. While Goodwin and Okogie got multiple. We need an overwhelming talent advantage to offset the disaster that is our horrendous head coach and the lack of accountability this team has when it comes to turnovers and decision-making on both ends in key situations.

[Revived]

Suns have been outscored in 5 of the last 8 fourth quarters this season. 3 of those are losses.

Basically every team in the league is now gonna now they can basically kinda cruise through the first 3 quarters and still play hard in the 4th and probably beat the Suns. The confidence boost it gives opposing teams going into the 4th quarters is terrifying.

[AtheJ415]

To me it’s more about having 2 guys who can create on the court at any given time, that’s why we kinda need all 3 guys. That’s how all 3 guys can play less minutes too. Would be nice to have a 4th though, but we traded Payne for basically no reason at all.

We know we need all 3 in the playoffs anyway, and that’s when the rotations shrink. I feel like losing/blowing reg season games due to resting guys is expected, but I’m hoping we improve in these high leverage situations.

How many teams have that? Do the Spurs? Do the Lakers?

[AtheJ415]

Why's EG and Beal loading up on the same corner

Probably because Vogel told them to as if it were going to help.

Doubt it

If the players don't know where they are supposed to be, whose fault is that?

If the players are in the wrong places, why are they getting PT?

There is 1 common denominator to our unbelievable underachieving this season and it's Vogel