Phoenix Suns Comeback Falls Short But Offense Continues To Break Out In Loss To Clippers

Phoenix Suns Comeback Falls Short But Offense Continues To Break Out In Loss To Clippers

Some people say there’s no such thing as a moral Victory I say there is on today’s episode of lockon Sons why the Clippers coming into footprint Center and only beating the Suns by nine could actually lead to some good things for the Phoenix Suns especially once Kevin Durant is

Back in the lineup we’ll break it all down let’s go you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and we’re back this is locked on Phoenix Suns we are part of the locked on podcast Network I’m your host Brendan clean a credential media member covering the Suns for the past seven seasons a writer ATS suns.com and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get

Your podcast say big thank you for making locked on suns your first list in post game here on Wednesday night into Thursday morning if you’re finding us for the first time go ahead and hit that follow or subscribe button get a new show in your feed every single Monday

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Quarter that is our moment of the game it’s a little bit of a long moment I know a quarter is not a moment but that is what Frank vogle said decided this game and it obviously included the Suns getting off to a slow start getting off on the wrong foot

Booker called it them throwing the first punch whatever metaphor you want to use I think that is where the Suns lost this game I just went back and watched the entire thing for you guys before I hit record because I wanted to get my own opinion on second

Watch of not only how bad it actually was but what was actually bad about it and as with a lot of these things in the modern NBA the team that makes the most threes is going to look better right so the Clippers in this first quarter went

Five of 10 from Deep the Suns went two of eight in a lot of ways that’s what you’re looking for in terms of evidence I thought transition decided a lot of this as well early in the in the first quarter early in the game the Suns had a couple

Of different moments where they botched transition offensive opportunities so that Not only was lost points for them but of course when you miss in transition typically it’s transition going the other direction for the opponent and it was overall in this game the Clippers had 20 six points off

Turnovers the Suns only had 16 despite the total turnovers that each team coughed up being relatively close so a lot of these things compiled Al together but where vogle had an issue which is pretty obvious from the minutes was the defensive intensity the Readiness and preparedness and mental

Focus required to defend this Clippers team right you would think that a big matchup at home against a hot team with literal All Stars you know you don’t you’re not surprised at what Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and James Harden and Russell Westbrook are capable of you know and

Yet the sun seemed to be vogle pointed to defense on the pin Downs uh three-point opportunities that Paul George was able to get my best read on it is that they wanted nurkic to step up on the catch when George got the ball so that he wasn’t able to just quickly launch those

Threes that did not happen and as I mentioned from the minutes the other guy who you would say probably was in the dogghouse a little bit tonight was chimzi metu who got a starting opportunity with Durant out of the game and got the Kawhi Leonard matchup to open things

Up also had a couple chances against kaai against PG and just didn’t look ready you know um and I always hate to be the guy reigning on everybody’s parade with metu I think he has earned himself a rotation spot I don’t know how much that necessarily says on this Sun’s

Team that has been so inconsistent on the bench but I think he’s earned that beyond that though you get nights like this often where the intensity the effort is not consistent and obviously this team’s not asking him to start games but to not fight through screens against Kawhi Leonard to on multiple drives

Early in this game allow penetration from the best downhill scorer on the team Kawhi Leonard an MVP candidate when he’s healthy and then Meander into a lazy switch with Yousef nurkic after kawhai runs that pick and roll do we think nurkic is going to uh Corral Kawhi Leonard on a drive no

Nurkic is help at The Rim you fight through those screens you stay attached you body him you contest and then you have help in the form of your Center to potentially block that shot or make it even harder on kawhai to get the the look off metsu did none of the

Above and it’s not a surprise to me that he sat most of the game as a result we also had a couple of Beal misses in this game early on from the Suns where he had a reverse layup that barely missed he had had a mid-range pull-up jumper that clanked and those

Were good looks that would have changed the course of you know the early momentum of the game he also had a kickout three late in the first quarter that was in Rhythm not wide open but open they help Russ helped off of Beal Booker found him that’s a shot you

Probably want Beal to make he was 0 six from deep in this game and uh you know I guess I’m just highlighting all these things to say it was it was an equal opportunity slow start the suns were tight the rest of the game even in the second quarter the

Clippers extended their lead but it was only by Four Points Suns won the third and fourth quarters so this really was the defining stretch Booker had a couple of defensive miscues he also had a couple of nice moments I would actually even say in the spirit of being somewhat

Positive here because again I do think a lot of it came down to makes and misses in this first quarter the intensity was a problem but somebody who brought brought execution and effort on the defensive end in this fourth first quarter even though it wasn’t a ton of minutes he only

Played 5 minutes and 51 seconds in the quarter to me it was K Bates de he was the first guy off the bench and ended up playing 21 minutes in this game which was second most off of the bench over aogi over you know obviously watab didn’t even play little was inactive

With an injury and good one didn’t play so the Suns went into this game as they did in the last game knowing Bates deop was going to be a key part I thought defensively he had a nice close out against PG at one point he had a nice

Double effort where he doubled kawhai in the post and then uh slid out and he just felt like he was prepared again with the intensity that it was going to take to defend this team when a lot of guys did not so I would have to agree with

Everybody’s read Booker and vogle and everybody else even Beal said you know from a shot making standpoint he just need needed to be better I would agree and you can’t have that against any postseason Championship caliber team it’s just not it’s not going to happen and especially what we’re going to get

To in the next segment that the suns are a smaller team that is going to have to defend through effort and effort only none of these mistakes are acceptable and the sons were handed to n on their home court as a result big takeaway from tonight’s game

We’ll get to next it’s all about identity as always as we continue to learn more about this team I’ll tell you what we learned about that identity what I think the sons are learning about their own identity Night by night next first Today’s Show brought to you by better

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The New Year by visiting betterhelp.com lockon NBA to get 10% off your first month that’s betterhelp hp.com lockon NBA let’s keep it rolling here identity you might know this already and it certainly isn’t helped on nights when KD is out and metu is inconsistent but the suns are a small

Team breaking news they’re small and I told you when I spent more time previewing this game on yesterday’s show than I normally would I told you that the sun’s route to winning this game was going to be four guards and and nerk now it ended up being four guards and bu bu

In the second half during a lot of the big stretches of the game but that was the pathway and that was somewhat of a Clippers thing right because obviously their best lineup their starting lineup includes or in some cases if Powell has it going it’s

Him but he’s a guard as well so is Russ six of their best seven players are guards George Leonard Harden man Westbrook Powell so sure it’s some of that but it’s also somewhat a son’s thing I would say most Knights unless during the second half of the season a

Wing or forward really solidifies thems not the way chimi metu has solidified himself but really solidifies thems that’s going to be the case for the foreseeable future the suns are an offensive team I say that often a lot of the lineup data will tell you that their best overall

Units even sometimes their best defensive units come when they put offense out there first and foremost they allowed 37 points in the third quarter but you probably watching at home felt pretty good about that third quarter and in the fourth quarter they locked down even more and only allowed 24

Points the the Clippers had only 12 turnovers total but eight of them came in the first half only four of them came in the second half so to me that says even more about the sun’s overall intensity on defense in the second half that they weren’t even forcing

Turnovers and they were able to get out in transition offensively in the second half despite not forcing those turnovers I asked Frank vogle about running off of Misses which is something I’ve talked to you guys about on the show a lot after the game and he

Said they want to run all the time off of turnovers off of misses and even off of makes but specifically he has agreed that the running off of Misses has seemed to click lately but all of that combined would tell you that the suns in the second

Half did not get some sort of spark because they put Josh aogi and you know udoka asabuki and Jordan Goodwin out there and got a bunch of steals and blocks and locked down no the suns were good in that second half because they did what their best

At they were 15 of 35 overall from deep but most of that was in the second half where they were 12 of 20 from behind the three-point line they had 20 23 assists total in this game but 14 of those came in the second half they got to the line

17 times in the second half only nine in the first half the offense was what clicked in the second half and that allowed them to get control of the game not play it on the Clippers terms which is slow and sludgy and ISO heavy and you’re getting overwhelmed by their

Length and their size no the Suns played their game in the second half and their game is offense and their game is small ball Ro lineup wise Personnel wise that’s just the nature of this roster and the nature of who’s proven themselves so far this season but it

Worked and it can work and it will work and of course when Durant gets back it won’t seem so small either it won’t be Booker Beal Allen and Gordon out there with the center it’ll be Durant instead of one of those guys probably Gordon I also think you have to give

Credit when you’re talking about identity to Frank vogle okay because to me and the coaching staff you know I’m not going to always say it’s always the head coach he pressed a lot of the right buttons in this game he bailed on metu and nurkic when it was not

Working he I think by the end of the game also seemed to prefer which I I I like to have Gordon out there defensively even over Bates Diop despite the length and and height that Bates deop obviously viously has an advantage with because Gordon physically was just providing resistance on some of those

Drives and post-ups and isos against the Clippers Stars he also lastly most maybe impressively Road bu Bowl all right and but it makes sense because you don’t want to get so fogged down in mismatches and everything else against the Clippers because again that is their game but the reality is they

Have a lot of like-sized players and that’s their style and you have to keep up with it and so bull was the guy who I think in a if Durant was healthy the lineup they probably would have closed with was the four guards with Durant at Center just to say that b was

Basically filling the Durant role tonight and what he was able to do was switch out onto James Harden to contest those step back threes switch out onto you know Paul George for an iso and stay alive in those situations not foul be mobile enough and agile enough

To not you know get your ankles broken and I think from a coaching standpoint the most sort of impressive you know Gusto part of all of it is he vogle was fine to sort of bet that iika zubot was not going to punish them and

He didn’t zubats had a quiet game he was in foul trouble he had minimal rebounds only six points and Daniel Ty is just not somebody you really have to worry about in the post so even he had a pretty quiet game on top of that it was a smart move that kind of

Was The Best of Both Worlds in that bu still had size he had five rebounds in this game he was contesting shots even though he didn’t have any blocks but he also can defend on the perimeter and on the other end space the floor he made two threes

In this game he kept the ball moving he was setting kind of not really setting screens but more so slipping screens catching the ball on the short roll he did enough of all the things that the Clippers were leaving open and kind of their weak points and that’s pretty impressive I

Mean that’s very impressive for a guy who hasn’t even been in the rot most of the season and so we’ll talk more about the rotation a little bit in the last segment but what impressed me was vogle manipulating the lineups the right way finding the what worked and writing

It even if it was not what he expected going in and was not what maybe anybody would have expected even at halftime but that’s this team’s identity the more guys that they can find who play well together and fit into that identity the better and the quicker that

They can just push the gas on the offense the better I I just think that’s what this team is that’s always the best moments we’ve seen from them maybe there’s a roster move to be made at the deadline that gets a little more balance and and provides a little more defensive

Stability until then four guards and bull Bowl makes a lot of sense to me let’s talk about the rotation a bit I’ll give you my box score odity I may even have a Phoenix Suns pretake for you we’ll get to our rapid fire wrapup segments next first Today’s Show brought

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In on visit fel.com lockon and make your first bet a layup take advantage of that $150 in bonus bets FanDuel official partner of the NFL wrapping up the show let’s get to our usual final segment game recap bits which we will start off with the box score audity of the night

This is not even an oddity anymore but I do want to point out the Suns continue to emphasize transition more tonight running off of Misses was not quite as much of a success start to finish but they were able to turn steals into turn into transition opportunities at quite a

High rate and overall the Suns did have eight fast break points compared to just 10 for the Clippers so that they played to mostly a draw tonight which is a good thing to see that’s not the box score audity though really what I wanted to emphasize from a stats standpoint

Tonight is how even everything was right this these two teams had they were within three field goal attempts of each other they were within two percentage points of field goal percentage they attempted one three-pointer different 34 for the Clippers 35 for the Sun they were roughly both around 25 to 30

Free throw attempts both had 10 offensive rebounds both had mid 20s assists the Suns had four more turnovers that was obviously a big factor um but almost any way you slice it this was a very close game which is again why I focused on that first

Quarter if the Suns close out a little harder on a few of those threes if they provide a little more resist resistance against Kawhi Leonard if they execute a little better in offensive and defensive transition and the Clippers are up maybe just 10 instead of 15 or five obviously would

Become a son’s win in the box score right I know you can play that game all the time but that’s how close this was Bench mob Vibe check we talk about the rotation what I wanted to hit on here is udoka asabuki all right I think maybe

There are some Suns fans I haven’t seen it a ton maybe it’s obvious to you I haven’t seen it a ton online confusion of why he went back to you know not much of a role but I think this game showed it because well there’s a lot of reasons in

Some cases you just can’t play him against teams that have a non-traditional Center in their second unit so obviously two nights ago uh the Suns played who on Earth did the Suns play two nights ago why am I the Blazers right and in that particular game baji was their backup and maybe

Asabuki could have played um you find a stretch center it’s not going to work but but in this game what you saw him not be able to do in his he did play in this first quarter as crazy I know you probably didn’t even catch it is that they started to Blitz Booker

Which is something we’ve seen a million times his turnovers did not help the cause in the first quarter probably something I should have mentioned in that breakdown and asabuki could not catch the ball on the short roll in the pocket that the Clippers were leaving open with that defensive

Scheme and do something with it you know asabuki is not the type of player who’s going to make a a pocket pass after catching the ball on the short roll read the rotating defense and launch it to the corner that’s not something he’s good at he’s not going to catch that pass

Take a dribble and Tomahawk dunk you know that’s not what udoka asabuki does so when you know I think he had some plays against the Kings and some of those other games where he was starting to string together some strong performances I think he did have some games

Where it kind of worked even some of the short roll stuff I’m talking about but that’s not his game when he is not simply catching easy pocket yeah I keep saying pocket passes catching easy dump offs for layups and dunks right at the basket in the pick and roll

Or setting a screen and not even really having to worry about getting the ball and just being able to gobble up offensive rebounds or better yet standing in the dunker spot and just looking for the rebound only you start to see the limitations of his game so I wanted to highlight that I

Know that’s not good news because we did see Eubanks in this game didn’t make a huge impact on it bullbull is going to have some ups and downs even though I’m optimistic about his execution lately the Suns do not have an answer at the backup five is the long and short of it

And there’s not much to solve that problem right now it’s going to be by committee it’s going to be night tonight and all the guys have very clear drawbacks what I wanted to close out with was a Phoenix Suns pretake and that is where I tell you what the

National highlight or the national take the national perspective on ESPN or wherever is going to be I think there is going to be some hype around bullbull if this continues and it might actually be the the rare positivity for the Suns of being the team to figure this

Out it’s very early it’s not going to happen on Thursday when you’re listening to this but I am getting in on the ground floor of what I believe will be a national storyline if it continues if bullbull is able to play 10 to 15 minutes on a championship contending

Super team and it is a positive experience for all involved it will start to come up and I think the Suns will get some credit for for working him in and kind of pulling a rabbit out of the Hat every team that’s ever had this guy on on it has wanted to

Bail on the experience did not seem to get along with the coaches at Oregon for whatever you know reason never could get on the court in Denver he finally plays 72 games last year for the magic and they said goodbye so I’m not saying I

Have any read on why that is I know I’ve brought that Trend up a million times it’s might be overly negative but I’m bringing it up now to make it into a positive by saying it will be very impressive if the suns are able to turn

Him into something as a real role player that does positive stuff for a team trying to win every night because that’s hard to do for any raw toolsy athletic player and especially um to do it the way that it seems like he’s improved which is executing and

Making the right play and reading the game that’s really cool if it happens so I I just want to you know there’s been a lot of questioning of this whole Sun’s experiment this season and maybe we’re on our way towards some optimism and praise for this whole thing who would

Have thought that will wrap us up for the day though don’t forget to hit follow subscribe wherever you’re finding the show be back on Friday for a preview of the Miami and Memphis games along with potentially some Trends from what Booker and Beal have looked like together I think it’s a

Good time to take a look at that after their two games as the only stars on the court but truthfully a handful of them on the court together dating back to when Durant was in the lineup a lot to look at a lot to break down find that

Show in your feed tomorrow I’ll catch you then

Devin Booker and Bradley Beal led a late Phoenix Suns comeback to nearly take back a home win against the Los Angeles Clippers but fell short, 131-122.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down the loss, including how the first quarter doomed the Suns on both ends and why offense is still the key for Phoenix against the best teams. Then, some more Bol Bol praise.

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