Luka Doncic Needs More Help Versus Suns
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Ryan Griffin: It’s sorta hollow because I still think they’ll probably beat the Mavericks. Cause I don’t think the Mavericks are that good. Doncic gave you 45, 12, and eight in the first game. And it still wasn’t really close. I know they made a really big run at the end, but that game from start to finish was not close, even a little bit really.
So it’s, to me, it’s just saying, hey, they’re going to lose to the Warriors in the next round, which most people might already think right now, but that didn’t give me any more confidence for the Suns. And I really kind of expect the Warrior’s just a roll to the NBA finals now because that last series just left too bad of a taste in my mouth about Phoenix.
Matt Bassin: Well, the Warriors got to get there first. They gotta get through Memphis. I get what you’re saying and the Suns did not look great against New Orleans, they didn’t look great even before Booker got hurt, but in this game, they look great. Jumped out 9-0 lead, and then, you know, shoot over 50% from the field, dominate the boards by 15. Six Suns scored in double figures, Deandre Ayton with 25, Booker with 23, 9, and 8 filling up the stat sheet.
All-Stars
CP3 had a nice 19. Exactly what you’re saying. You’re going to begin with Luka and the non-all-stars. It’s like the opposite of Jimmy Walker in the all-stars Luka, who does his job and becomes the youngest. My man, Kobe Bryant to drop 45 and 10 in a playoff game, but besides, you know, Maxi Kleber who has a nice 19 points, most of that in the first half, he didn’t get any help.
Jalen Brunson, come back to earth, 13 points on 16 shots. Spencer Dinwiddie with 8 points on 8 shots in the 30 minutes of play. And despite making a nice run in the fourth to make it only a 7-point loss, you still miss 7 free throws where you make all your free throws. Maybe you end up actually tying this game, but the Suns just played keep away.
And they just kept them at arm’s length after jumping out to a big lead and never really needed to look back or worry too much. The fourth quarter, you got to clean it up a bit. Obviously, you have to close out games if you’re going to win a championship. And I think they should’ve learned that last year against Milwaukee.
They are more talented than the Mavs and they shouldn’t really have beaten the Mavs now what, 10 straight times? So, they clearly have something over Dallas because Dallas just doesn’t have enough people to deal with what the Phoenix Suns are able to bring.Â
The Suns Were Up!
Ryan Griffin: Yeah. And it wasn’t even really like a fourth-quarter one. It was like a final three minutes of the game run. The Suns were up, 15 a lot of the fourth quarter, you know, 15, somewhere around there. One thing that was interesting about Jalen Brunson, in game one, he just didn’t seem like himself in game one, if that made sense?Â
He drove to the basket a lot and it seemed he was passing up the three-pointer. I don’t know why he only shot one 3. And it seemed like he was intent on driving to the basket on a night where he didn’t have it. He took a lot of tough shots and missed them, which is fine. That happens in the NBA, but he also had some layups where he just straight missed them off the rim.
So I’m wondering if he’s going to look for a little bit more of his outside shot in game two? You talked about a little LeBron and LeBron and Luka or similar type players were surrounded with shooters because everyone’s going to collapse on them, them being so big, so skilled in the bank that when they drive, it’s going to draw attention. Â
It seemed like Brunson again, whenever he got the ball, he had tunnel vision, it was straight to the rim. And obviously, it wasn’t working out for him. And I don’t know if that was, you wouldn’t think it was a Deandre Ayton effect either because the last series they’re playing against Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside who are, you know, more defensively intimidating than Deandre Ayton is.
