Devin Booker & Suns LIGHT UP Pelicans, will Phoenix avoid NBA Play-In? | Hoops Tonight

Devin Booker & Suns LIGHT UP Pelicans, will Phoenix avoid NBA Play-In? | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball moving on to Suns Pelicans this game was crazy the Suns just lit them up from the opening tip they had 14 points in the first two minutes in 58 seconds on Pace

For damn near 60o quarter they were consistently getting the Pelicans in rotation a lot of the same stuff that I’ve talked about with the Suns where you just inevitably end up drawing in help and then you’re playing drive and kick basketball with just incredibly talented offensive players they were uh

The Pelicans were making a lot of mistakes early in this game Devin Booker and Kevin Durant each got two wide open jumpers in the opening minutes there was a nerkish offensive rebound that got Devon Booker a wide open 15-footer there was a play on the left wing where herb

Jones was prepping for a a a specific type of coverage and wasn’t paying close enough attention mention to his man Deon Booker on this play and Deon Booker got a wide open Corner three just because he was a step late KD got two wide open kickouts uh because his man got pulled

Into help situations all four of these jumpers went in that was a big part of oh excuse me ktie made one and missed the other but like three of those four jumpers went in they got into Rhythm pretty quickly they just kept leaving Devon Booker open after that we talked

About the two mistakes early but Devon Booker’s next three out of that that he made came in a stack pick and roll situation so stack pick and roll is when Devin Booker is coming off of the nerkish ball screen but as he’s coming off of the nerkish ball screen Grayson

Allen underneath the basket is coming up in back screening nurkic’s man so that he can get open on the role the way the Pelicans were guarding it was Zion Williamson was guarding grayon Allen and so what herb Jones and and and Zion Williamson were doing is they were switching that Grayson Allen Devin

Booker element so basically uh uh uh Zion Williamson will have to split out and guard Devin Booker and Herb Jones would essentially take uh um Grayson Allen as he’s flashing to the top of the key and in both of these situations Zion Williamson is closing out at Devin

Booker right so it’s a difficult defensive matchup for him just by the way the coverage is set up they’re basically pulling Zion into this ball screen situation right so Booker’s next three came out of a stack pick and roll situation where Zion was supposed to switch out but he was too late Devin

Booker made the three they ran another St stack pick and roll a few possessions later this time Zion comes out hard this was on the left side of the floor Zion comes out hard but it’s a bad close out Deon Booker goes right by him and gets

An easy layup and by the way this is a one of the many reasons why I don’t take the Pelicans very seriously as a playoff threat regardless of what the defensive numbers look like their defensive front court is bad and good offenses are going to find a way to score easily against

Them just like the Suns did Suns did there was another three in there on the left wing where they left Evan Booker wide open in transition where they just weren’t matched up there were tough shots in there too Devon hit a step back three in the first quarter at the top of

The key but like he’s in full Rhythm at that point that there’s not really much you can do to stop a player once he’s that confident and in that kind of GrooVe so uh four minutes left in the first quarter the pel’s bench group comes in and they start this is before

The bench came in four minutes left in the first quarter the pels are trying to slow down Devon Booker at this point so they start blitzing him soon as they start blitzing Devin Booker the Suns score eight points immediately on the next three possessions Eric Gordon Corner three in the right corner

Grayson Allen Corner three in the left corner and then a Grayson Allen close out opportunity from the left wing where he drives and gets a nasty dunk like a posterizing dunk so like no matter what they did they were just in the blender late first quarter the pel’s bench group

Comes in and I don’t know how this happened but somehow Zion Williamson drew the Devin Booker assignment in this bench group Devin Booker took him through one simple flare screen and got another wide openen three we’re not even 10 minutes into this game dein Booker

Has 19 and the suns are up by 21 points and the game is over this was an unserious effort from the New Orleans Pelicans Yousef nurkic was just ignoring yonas Valen chunis in trolling the paint which stopped Zion’s dribble penetration and really bogged down their offense obviously Brandon Ingram being out plays

A factor there right the Pelicans are a statistically good defense they’re sixth in defensive rating on the season and fourth post All-Star break but I don’t actually think they can guard any of the good offenses in any sort of serious game they’re front Court players can’t

Guard in space they kind of require a certain type of matchup for their wing Defenders to be able to impact things enough for them to kind of hold down an elite defense they need to be able to kind of like load up on a singular player anything that can really spread

Them out is going to put them in a lot of trouble um on the Suns front it’s no secret that they need Devin Booker to be at this level to be where they need to be offensively Deon Booker had been struggling coming back from the ankle injury shooting just 48% from the field

And 28% from three in the 10 games before last night just 24 points per game as well and you saw the offense struggle a little bit a little bit particularly in the Oklahoma City game in the San Antonio game even struggled a little bit against Denver They just won

That game uh but they broke out in a big way in this game and the Suns offense broke out with him but the Suns have a absolute murderer row here to end the season their next seven games before we get into the playoffs are Cleveland Minnesota New Orleans again who’s going

To want revenge uh the Clippers Twice The King and the timber wolves now I think the suns are good enough to do well in a lot of those games also just from personal experience having rooted for the Lakers last year urgency plays a major role here like Cleveland doesn’t have the

Urgency because they have a locked in playoff spot that the Suns do Minnesota doesn’t have the urgency because they have a locked in playoff spot that the Suns do New Orleans they’re obviously still in some sort of vague threat to drop into the playin but they’re in

Better position than most of these teams right so they’re less threatened right the Clippers obviously same sort of thing they want to play better basketball they have some motivation but they’re not threatened the way that Phoenix is Sacramento they’re that’s going to be a a tough game but

Sacramento obviously is down two of their most important players and then the Minnesota Timberwolves same thing like uh at the end of the season just like they play them earlier in the stretch as well but same sort of thing not really jocking for position so they

Have a huge urgency advantage in a lot of these games so I actually if I had to guess on a team dropping down into the 910 and let the Lakers pass I actually think it’s more likely that it ends up being Sacramento than Phoenix because Sacramento has the same type of urgency

But they’ve got also a tough schedule and they’re missing some important players I think the suns are really freaking good and I think when they play that hard and they bring that level of urgency it’s really tough to beat them all right moving on to our

Mailbag so uh the the context for this first question we had a I had a a an opportunity at the end of the show at the end of the MAV segment yesterday to talk about where I’d rank them in the Western Conference and I made the case that all of the

Teams that are in that tier so like the Suns the Clippers the Lakers the Thunder and the Timberwolves all those teams are more or less just as formidable and so I I don’t think Dallas has done anything to separate from that group so that that’s the context of this first

Question the uh here’s the question the case for the Mavs in a tier of their own in the west below Denver is Luca he’s the only player who has a chance shot for shot with joic late in a game and when Luca isn’t giving you tough Unstoppable buckets Kyrie is Suns come

Close to that Firepower but it’s not the same respectfully I disagree I think all of these teams except if there’s one team that you could say Luca is just clearly better than the Stars by a wide margin and it’s not close it’s Luca’s better than Anthony Edwards right and

Even then Anthony Edwards could break out any one of these postseason runs and enter into that tier right but obviously with luuka an Kyrie the star power is just better but like the sons of Kevin Durant Bradley Beal and Devon Booker Deon Booker just had 52 last night like

I’m sorry but there’s not a tangible gap between Luca and Kyrie and KD Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the Clippers front kawh Leonard Paul George and James Harden on the Lakers front LeBron James and Anthony Davis and all their skill that they have on the perimeter Oklahoma

City Shake Elders Alexander and Jaylen Williams like I I I could you could argue that Luca is the best player in that group I think it’s probably him and kawhai in terms of playoff players and I’d probably give a slight Edge to Luca so I agree with you that luk is probably

The best but there’s not a sizable star power gap between any of those guys and uh in the Luca Kye Duo not there not anything that’s worth really mentioning there’s probably a small Gap there but nothing that’s really going to be substantial when you get to the postseason so again really like Dallas

Playing the best basketball right now which is a huge indicator of their potential playoff success but I push back on the idea that they’re just Superior to to all of the teams in that tier a

Jason Timpf reacts to Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns beatdown of Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. Jason outlines how the Suns can avoid the play-in game and clinch a top 6 seed in the Western Conference.

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