Game 5: San Antonio Spurs (2-2) @ Phoenix Suns (2-2) l Thursday l 7:00pm l NBATV

[enigmatics]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

[handsome salary]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

Book, KD and Vogel got rolled on their home court by a 19 year old and role players who also haven’t played together. Back to back even.

[enigmatics]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

Book, KD and Vogel got rolled on their home court by a 19 year old and role players who also haven’t played together. Back to back even.

This is a trash take.

Let's pretend as if Wemby isn't a generational 7'4 talent that teams have really never seen the likes of WHO PLAYED in a professional European league. No, no, no he's "just 19".

Let's also pretend as if they haven't been drafting young talent the last 3-4 year with the buttload of picks they've had. You know it's entirely possible some of those guys are developing right? You know they DO play under a revered coach who's won quite a few NBA championships right?

This isn't a cellar dwellar Spurs team - should be obvious by now.

[Hitachi77]

Btw the Lakers game we lost because of offense, not defense. And that was tied to only having one star playing. Saying Nurkic can’t guard Lebron is like saying water is wet. A lot of guys can’t guard Lebron. Everyone in history basically.

With only 2 stars on the court we seem to stumble into good offense every single night. Last night we shot over 50% from 3 and overall and everyone here seems to think it was bad. I’ll take that efficiency every single time.

[bwgood77]

I hate to say it but we’re missing CP3’s leadership right now. Look at the Suns roster, there’s no leaders. Just a bunch of individual contributors really.

KD’s definitely not a leader and he’s said it himself that he doesn’t want to be one either. Book is great but he’s never been a vocal leader type guy.

And outside of them two, there’s basically nobody else. Eric Gordon maybe? lol no.

I thought about that last night...how our team completely changed in competitiveness with CP3's leadership, and now it looks completely different.

His play was washed but his impact on the team as a whole was inarguable.

That being said, I do think just based on talent, the trade for Beal was a no brainer, even if he misses games. Paul was not going to be around too much longer and Beal is a big time talent.

Also, we really shot well, and we just need to clean up the turnovers and need to keep up with other team's rebounding. We should not have lost the rebounding battle with them. As good as Wemby is, he's not a great rebounder..nor is Collins. They were just a lot more active and surprisingly enough, for a very young team, takes care of the ball better.

And as good as Book was/is, he had another 5 turnovers tonight after 6 in his first one. KD has 20 turnovers in 5 games too. So he is averaging 4 and Book 5.5.

Beal hopefully can do the majority of the ballhandling. His turnover % and turnovers per game have been lower than both KD and Book in their careers.

[KdoubleDees23]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

Book, KD and Vogel got rolled on their home court by a 19 year old and role players who also haven’t played together. Back to back even.

Right! Enegenetics or whatever his name is! Not a great argument. 2 NBA all stars a 6th man of the year playing a team that hasn't played together with a 19 year old rookie on game 5. No excuses . They flat out lost, and looked like crap for 75% of the game

[KdoubleDees23]

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

Book, KD and Vogel got rolled on their home court by a 19 year old and role players who also haven’t played together. Back to back even.

This is a trash take.

Let's pretend as if Wemby isn't a generational 7'4 talent that teams have really never seen the likes of WHO PLAYED in a professional European league. No, no, no he's "just 19".

Let's also pretend as if they haven't been drafting young talent the last 3-4 year with the buttload of picks they've had. You know it's entirely possible some of those guys are developing right? You know they DO play under a revered coach who's won quite a few NBA championships right?

This isn't a cellar dwellar Spurs team - should be obvious by now.

I will bet you $200 this Spurs team doesn't make the playoffs. Wemby had his career game vs the Suns. Many players have their career games against the Suns!

[enigmatics]

Book, KD and Vogel got rolled on their home court by a 19 year old and role players who also haven’t played together. Back to back even.

This is a trash take.

Let's pretend as if Wemby isn't a generational 7'4 talent that teams have really never seen the likes of WHO PLAYED in a professional European league. No, no, no he's "just 19".

Let's also pretend as if they haven't been drafting young talent the last 3-4 year with the buttload of picks they've had. You know it's entirely possible some of those guys are developing right? You know they DO play under a revered coach who's won quite a few NBA championships right?

This isn't a cellar dwellar Spurs team - should be obvious by now.

I will bet you $200 this Spurs team doesn't make the playoffs. Wemby had his career game vs the Suns. Many players have their career games against the Suns!

You don't have $200. All your money goes to Ayton's OnlyFans.

[schnakenpopanz]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

I hope you are aware how few games kyrie, harden and kd played together.
i know it is not the same situation and luck plays a role, but the injury history of beal, kd should have been red flags.
booker missed a lot too.

this is why you built the rest of the roster accordingly. having no pg = turnovers

[SunsRback4Good]

This is a trash take.

Let's pretend as if Wemby isn't a generational 7'4 talent that teams have really never seen the likes of WHO PLAYED in a professional European league. No, no, no he's "just 19".

Let's also pretend as if they haven't been drafting young talent the last 3-4 year with the buttload of picks they've had. You know it's entirely possible some of those guys are developing right? You know they DO play under a revered coach who's won quite a few NBA championships right?

This isn't a cellar dwellar Spurs team - should be obvious by now.

I will bet you $200 this Spurs team doesn't make the playoffs. Wemby had his career game vs the Suns. Many players have their career games against the Suns!

You don't have $200. All your money goes to Ayton's OnlyFans.

[KdoubleDees23]

This is a trash take.

Let's pretend as if Wemby isn't a generational 7'4 talent that teams have really never seen the likes of WHO PLAYED in a professional European league. No, no, no he's "just 19".

Let's also pretend as if they haven't been drafting young talent the last 3-4 year with the buttload of picks they've had. You know it's entirely possible some of those guys are developing right? You know they DO play under a revered coach who's won quite a few NBA championships right?

This isn't a cellar dwellar Spurs team - should be obvious by now.

I will bet you $200 this Spurs team doesn't make the playoffs. Wemby had his career game vs the Suns. Many players have their career games against the Suns!

You don't have $200. All your money goes to Ayton's OnlyFans.

I make that in 1/4 a day . Let’s bet tough guy!
We lost to a team that won’t make playoffs and has a 19 year old new team

[enigmatics]

The sample size is too small to really say anything about this team going forward (has been at times impressive but mostly uninspiring) but one thing I think you can say after any amount of games: champions don’t get down by 30 points at halftime on their home courts. That alone bodes extremely poorly for this season. You can “one game” it all you want but you know the best teams never let that happen

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

I hope you are aware how few games kyrie, harden and kd played together.
i know it is not the same situation and luck plays a role, but the injury history of beal, kd should have been red flags.
booker missed a lot too.

this is why you built the rest of the roster accordingly. having no pg = turnovers

Luckily Bradley Beal averages only 2.5 turnovers/game in his entire career.

[kennydorglas]

This is what feels when u get the #1 pick and dont draft a bust.
HOLY CRAP WEMBY is just on another level already at 19.

Im not even mad about the loss, we're just watching greatness here.

[schnakenpopanz]

Repeat after me - THIS IS NOT A TEAM THAT HAS PLAYED TOGETHER. This isn't the treadmill nucleus that got WAXED by Luka and the Doncics in a 2nd round Game 7.

I hope you are aware how few games kyrie, harden and kd played together.
i know it is not the same situation and luck plays a role, but the injury history of beal, kd should have been red flags.
booker missed a lot too.

this is why you built the rest of the roster accordingly. having no pg = turnovers

Luckily Bradley Beal averages only 2.5 turnovers/game in his entire career.

so you say there is hope!

[enigmatics]

I hope you are aware how few games kyrie, harden and kd played together.
i know it is not the same situation and luck plays a role, but the injury history of beal, kd should have been red flags.
booker missed a lot too.

this is why you built the rest of the roster accordingly. having no pg = turnovers

Luckily Bradley Beal averages only 2.5 turnovers/game in his entire career.

so you say there is hope!

Watch on YouTube

[Biff]

Team still looks like it has no heart. I'm not optimistic about our chances at winning a ring. Losing in the last second and then letting that same team blow you out on your home court, is absolutely pathetic. And yeah they came back but if they were truly championship caliber, they would have finished the comeback.

Anyone want to wager whether or not this cupcake of a team will even make it to the finals? I'd put $50 on them not making it.

[SunsRback4Good]

Team still looks like it has no heart. I'm not optimistic about our chances at winning a ring. Losing in the last second and then letting that same team blow you out on your home court, is absolutely pathetic. And yeah they came back but if they were truly championship caliber, they would have finished the comeback.

Anyone want to wager whether or not this cupcake of a team will even make it to the finals? I'd put $50 on them not making it.

Suns are a semifinal/WCF team this year we have no chemistry. I’d wager a nice amount on Boston Celtics winning it all. Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors in that particular order.. everyone else is a cupcake. Clippers/Suns injuries & chemistry will doom those teams. Bucks lost defense should have never traded Jru, they struggled to win a title with Eric Bledsoe as soon as they acquired Jru they won a title. Philly always seems to choke and Lakers have older stars. Who else am I missing?

I guarantee you guys that Celtics will win come back to this post late June and quote me.

[TeamTragic]

Another L and main source her is Vogel.

He had two of our big three players and what we saw ? Sloppy first half and chasing on second.

Gordon was tragic in defense. In offense no revelation.

Yuta unfortunately miss two huge shoot in last m in of the game.

Shine Okogie went off after two games. That is why he played small min in this game.

Booker almost triple double but how it that we lose. He played terrible first half and brilliant second. Kevin reverse.

Finally good game from Drew but It was very suspicious that he played finally min in 4Q than Nurkic. Really I don’t know why.

One good thing Vogel did it was play KBD. He is huge upgrade on defense than Little and offense because he can do more than make wide open three. Anyways he can’t shoot three but it doesn’t matter when around him run shooters.

Defense has been absolutely disgusting and the reason we have lost multiple games.

Vogel needs to do better and play everyone on this team especially with Beal out.

[lilfishi22]

Our guys still look really confused out there once the initial or secondary actions gets stuffed, it reverts back to ball watching Book/KD create. But that really isn't all that unique to us. That's what most teams with stars do, they revert to their stars to create. The difference is we've been spoiled with ELITE PG play from CP3 over the last few years. When plays break down, we always could rely on him to create something from nothing and get others involved. We've also had 3 years of continuity at point which makes a massive difference over a team that is now running a guy who hasn't played as a high level PG (and who's already missed 3 of 5 games) since we were a rat team. The standard has expectedly dropped.

We have a lot of work to do but I believe in the buy-in of everyone associated with the Phoenix Suns.

[Revived]

I hate to say it but we’re missing CP3’s leadership right now. Look at the Suns roster, there’s no leaders. Just a bunch of individual contributors really.

KD’s definitely not a leader and he’s said it himself that he doesn’t want to be one either. Book is great but he’s never been a vocal leader type guy.

And outside of them two, there’s basically nobody else. Eric Gordon maybe? lol no.

I thought about that last night...how our team completely changed in competitiveness with CP3's leadership, and now it looks completely different.

His play was washed but his impact on the team as a whole was inarguable.

That being said, I do think just based on talent, the trade for Beal was a no brainer, even if he misses games. Paul was not going to be around too much longer and Beal is a big time talent.

Also, we really shot well, and we just need to clean up the turnovers and need to keep up with other team's rebounding. We should not have lost the rebounding battle with them. As good as Wemby is, he's not a great rebounder..nor is Collins. They were just a lot more active and surprisingly enough, for a very young team, takes care of the ball better.

And as good as Book was/is, he had another 5 turnovers tonight after 6 in his first one. KD has 20 turnovers in 5 games too. So he is averaging 4 and Book 5.5.

Beal hopefully can do the majority of the ballhandling. His turnover % and turnovers per game have been lower than both KD and Book in their careers.

I’d love the bolded but is that also because Beal has never been entrusted with ball handling duties?