Phoenix Suns Overpowered By Minnesota Timberwolves Again In Game Two Loss
The Phoenix Suns had no answers for the Minnesota Timberwolves in a road Game Two as Devin Booker struggled again and the Suns’ defense collapsed.
Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans recaps the loss including the Suns’ fear of Rudy Gobert, their inability to execute on D against Anthony Edwards, and the lack of creativity with how to use Kevin Durant.
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24 Comments
Ggās game 2 – šŗ its a long series
Same story as last year when they got obliterated by Nuggets in the losses and barely would eek out a win. The only reason they won against Clippers was because PG and Kawhi didnāt play. Suns are overrated
Yall got kd but we git MCDANIELS
There is no answer for turnovers. They will get blown out all the time .
Durant , Booker and Beal are resting and chilling this 2 games šššš
Of course booker scrub ass leads in turnovers. Trade that loser
Yall need more back cutsā¦ like Beal pulled on NAW. Thatāll keep the defense honest.
And that's a wrap – Suns showed us who they were all season. This is who they are. Not good.
As a Wolves fan, yeah the series isnāt over, you guys get to show what you got on homeā¦but man Booker aināt that dude, sorry
From watching KAT and Dlo run the show from my early Wolves year I know what fake talk looks like. Now I would say Booker is significantly BETTER than those 2 listed (Booker went on a Finals run lol).
Anyways, u guys for not leadership, depth, or size. Sorry, but goodluck! Jaden McDaniels does this to many guys
Hang in there suns fans… they're going to figure it out…don't lose faith
Boy these Suns media ppl are so delusional itās crazy. Like they been talking about the same thing with this team basically the entire season and here we are in the playoffs and the same thing is happening. They got all 3 stars on the court so thatās no excuse. THIS TEAM IS COOKED!!! Theyāll probably win game 3 or 4, but I this team is trash. Just 3 stars with no cohesion. WHEN they donāt win the chip, you gotta let someone go
How do you go from KEVIN JOHNSON 3 time (ALL STAR)(ALL NBA) Should be in (HOF)š to STEVE NASH 2 Time MVP* & First Ballot (HOF) CP3 THE POINT GOD & All of a sudden you THINK you dont need a POINT GUARD
This Suns team been inconsistent all season
this team plays with no heart and its so hard to watch
On offense we have taken the ball out of the hands of Booker, Beal and KD to have Nurkic run it. It is so predictable as I have been screaming at my screen all season. Against great defense like Wolves, it stands out bigger. Whenever he has the ball, nobody is afraid that he will shoot from outside, not afraid he will dribble inside. All the 5 defenders are backing off him and guarding the 4 he is making a play for with an extra man.
With an extra defender it is nearly impossible for his teammates to get open. By the time one eventually squeezes out of the scramble to get open barely, the shot clock has run down, and Nurkic just throws it hoping they will be in that spot. They rarely get a clean catch to get a shot off as when they do the extra defender is already in their space, forcing them to shoot without any rhythm or even making it easier for the defenders to strip them causing turnovers.
Booker, Beal and Durant are wasting more energy trying to get separation on offense when Nurkic is play making for them. By the time the second half comes around they have already spent all their energy in the first half just to get separated from the extra defender that is guarding them. It is why there is little to no movement after half time. This is on top of also working hard to lose defenders on their isolations as well just to get a shot off.
On top of that with Nurkic in the lineup they are forced to spend too much energy chasing around on defense. With his inability to be a non-factor on defense they are covering for him too much. Don't get me wrong he may alter some shots once in a while and make some great passes which looks good to the degree that we erase the other negatives when we win games but in losses it stands out the most.
The inability to have a rim protecter for a big who can alter shots forces teams to go inside at will with Nurkic in there. The inabilities of our guards to defend other guards and forwards makes it even easier to break us down on defense. The physicality with stronger and bigger teams wears us down quickly. Our weaknesses are going to be exploited and exposed from inside and outside in this series.
Nurkic is only a positive against a Jokic so he can take up space, but faster and athletic Bigs and guards treat him like meal every time they see him in the lineup. The only way for the Suns to survive is to go all small and outshoot them with ball movement instead of ISO ball. We need to drive the Minnesota Bigs out of the game and out of the paint by forcing over 50 three pointers. Let the Wolves go get the 2 pointers as we can't stop that but let us do what we can by raining down 3 pointers. Put Bol, KD, EG, Beal, Booker out there now. You can put Thad out there too and Royce as well but keep the Nurkic and Eubanks out of the game.
Minnesota has gone nuclear mode with defense, and we can only go against that with nuclear mode on offense. That means taking out non shooting Bigs and putting all shooters all over the floor and forcing the defense to scramble around while we can go in if they run up and pull up from the mid and drain the three if they stay back.
The question right now is Vogel, a defensive minded coach, going to have the heart to go accept offense is needed to beat that defense. What are you going to do now Vogel, as putting that lineup with a non-factor Nurkic/Eubanks on defense and offense is destroying us.
It is a must we go into a combat with offense and that is to unleash all small from the start or after few minutes. It is time now.
Love it! For now… I still wish u win and play against Denver in second round š
Forget about making adjustments exploiting this exploiting that against the wolves, why? this team is so undisciplined, badly coached that they canāt even not turn over the ball like crazy running stuff they were familiar with, how do you expect them to execute some newly generated gameplans they were not familiar with? This team is not functioning as an unit, thatās why they look uninterested, because they know this thing aināt working, they have no idea what they are supposed to do on court, how can suns fans have confidence in them when they donāt even believe in themselves? Their body language and expressions said it all.
I think the most frustrating part about this loss is that the Suns (at least in the first half) matched everything T-Wolves could throw at them. Outside of the points off moronic turnovers Suns were exceeding their physicality, destroying them on the glass, and caused as many turnovers (even if they somehow couldn't convert). I think thats been our 3rd biggest problem all year dont why the it happens but we just move away from whats working mid game.
We need to have honest devin booker conversations, we the difference between him and luka is one is a man one is a boy. He needs to fix up and man up. He sounds delusional now after games. He's 27 and hasn't done anything significant in a long while
Where are "Better Help" commercials when you need them!?!?
Marketing department dropped the ball by not getting them to sponsor this series.
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Edit: Nice, shouldn't have commented before the end of the video.
Are wa talking about how dominant Gobert is ? The suns are so scared to go in.
As much as the suns offense has looked clunky, their defense might be worse
Bottom line phx is being outcoached outplayed and overpowered. That's what it comes down to.
The Suns played much better in the first half than they did in Game 1. Also I counted at least 5 easy dunks/layups that the Suns just missed. Thatās 10 points alone off of easy buckets they couldāve had. Also if we were to be conservative and say we committed only half of the TOās that we had, we probably win Game 2. I know everyoneās kind of dooming right now but the Suns CAN win this series, they just have to stop being so damn careless with the ball. Weāre going up against the best team in the division. The Wolves basically led the west for most of the season so if you thought this was going to be an easy series then youāve got another thing coming.