Bradley Beal Clamps Tyrese Maxey As Phoenix Suns Respond After Road Trip

Bradley Beal Clamps Tyrese Maxey As Phoenix Suns Respond After Road Trip

On today’s episode of lock on suns how a familiar offensive wrinkle and an unexpected defensive wrinkle helped the Suns take care of business at home against the 76ers you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day

We are 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 at d magazine the host of the just basketball show wherever you get

Your podcasts and the creator of the lockd on suns Insider Community where I write do videos and more we hear more about that as the show continues but thank you for being here thank you for finding us wherever you find your podcast we are free and available on all

Platforms including YouTube so just hit that follow or subscribe button get a new episode in your feed every single Monday through Friday become an every dayer here on the show and get locked on to the Phoenix Suns all season long Today’s Show brought to you by the FanDuel sports book make every moment

More right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 200 bucks straight straight to your account if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started 115 to 102 is the final score the Phoenix Suns taking care of business notching win number

40 and as always we’re going to zoom in on our moment of the game to kick off the show and it is the end of the third quarter for one very specific reason the final four defensive possessions by the Suns so that basically takes us to the 1 minute and 48 second mark

And it was all about Bradley Beal’s defense not every night we’re doing that topic not every night that we’re highlighting Bradley Beal as a defensive player but I think that’s exactly why we need to in this game Tyrese Maxi the best player on the Sixers while Joel embiid continues to rehab the

Miniscus injury and surgery that he had was three of 13 from the field for six points Maxi is not always the most efficient with them beat out but still piles up points and what the Suns went out and did in this game to ensure or do

Their best to ensure that that did not happen was to put Beal on him and at the end of this third quarter Beal the first play was a block in transition a a rotation off of kind of out of the middle of the lane to come

Take a driving buddy hee they count it as a block in the Box Score you could call it a steel if you want swipes down at buddy really before he can even get his shot off and it’s a turnover going the other direction next possession Maxi

Tries to run a side pick and roll basically his favorite set to operate in Beal cuts off the drive the Sixers have to reset and it results in a Miss by I’m not even sure who KJ Martin be takes a transition three misses that no big deal come down the other way once

Again Tyrese Maxi comes off of a screen downhill in the middle of the floor Beal slithers through reaches around from behind pokes it Loose steel going the other way Eric Gordon weird game for him not what we’re focusing on right now attacks a close out on the other side misses it

Philly pushes the pace going the other direction and who else but Bradley Beal Soares in to launch into the air and get a chase down block on once again tyres Maxi Sun score on the other end 24-point lead capping off an awesome close to that quarter an awesome quarter period 30 to

19 for this favoring the Suns and punctuating an awesome defensive Night by Beal all right it’s not that we’ve never seen this before but why did we see it tonight and why don’t we see it more often again Maxi was coming off of three straight 30-point

Games shot worse than 50% from the field in a couple of those but the Sixers also won back to- back heading into this game largely because of Max so again even without embiid this guy has been productive and tonight he was not but the bigger question than how

They were able to even shut him down is why did Bradley Beal get the matchup and so I asked Frank vogle about it postgame because he shouted out this exact stretch which is already going to be my moment of the game all right but of course it helps when the coach Hypes

Up the same thing and he had praised these plays but I asked him about about why did Beal get this one why does Beal not get these matchups every night and often it’s Grayson Allen doing it Fogle referenced how they put uh Beal onto Lillard at times down the stretch on Sunday

And we’ve all remember the Zion matchup that Beal was able to navigate in and perform pretty well in a couple months ago so the bottom line the basic gist of vogel’s answer is they also need quite a bit from be on the offensive end right I mean he’s been

Driving so much of their offense lately literally uh driving talked about that on Wednesday’s show with Stephen pjon if you missed that one definitely check it out so they can’t always ask Beal to be the guy that uh dedicates himself puts his energy into in this case to a really quick

Energetic Relentless moving type of offensive option and vogul certainly has a point beel was decent as a passer tonight he was able to break down the defense and and and dish it but one of six from the field one of four from three no trips to the free throw line five turnovers

So definitely not Beal’s best offensive night and those things are probably linked together it is exhausting to do this that’s why most teams have Specialists who tend to be their best defenders and even guys who can do more on offense when they have to be more of a defensive specialist their offense

Tends to decrease right like think of Derek white or Drew holiday in Boston or whatever you want to look at I don’t think it makes sense to do this every night I don’t think it makes sense to ask Beal to do this on a consistent basis but it’s not very far

Off from exactly the point that I made on Tuesday’s episode about Devon Booker needing the sun’s needing more from book and a lot of what I talked about was this exact type of thing if Beal can do it if Beal can be the guy to step up in

Certain matchups in certain stretches of games at the point of attack in order to extinguish a fire of a player who ha has a going or try to disrupt a star players’s Rhythm like Maxi tonight whatever it is that starts to solve some of the sun’s problems but again if it’s not

Reasonable to ask be to do this on a consistent basis or for full games over the course of maybe a playoff series it’s not a full solution still it’s awesome to see that he can do this because it was a a huge doubt in everybody’s mind when he came

To Phoenix and it was very clear that point of attack defense was going to be a ho this team had when they traded Mel Bridges and didn’t really replace him people were skeptical myself included I talked about it back and forth questioned it wondered about it all off

Seon if Beal could be part of the answer to that problem and he clearly can be they want to save it they don’t want to overdo it they don’t want to over tax beel who obviously has had injury concerns all season but at the very

Least put this in your back pocket put a pin in it and do not be surprised if we see more of this when the playoffs do get going the sun’s had an awful performance on Sunday there’s no way around that I hate to harp on it but it was just that

Ugly next up I’ll tell you why I liked how they responded but that it is a very particular kind of response that we are coming to expect from this Sun’s team coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver

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Nets keeping and rolling I wanted to see tonight how the Suns responded of course we all did I had it penciled in that this segment on this show was going to be about how that response looked before the game ever even tipped off I’m driving to the arena and I’m like that’s

What I want to focus on and so I did and I don’t think it was Flawless tonight first quarter was ugly Grayson Allen said postgame that I think the group felt like the shot shot they were generating were good and they just missed them and obviously they kind of

Put their heads down and kept at it and six put their heads down in a good way I guess you could say hung their heads would be the bad version and score 39 in the second in order to get to 60 in the first half and away they

Went but even as things continued right 23 turnovers in this game they allowed a ton of offensive rebounds in the first quarter and luckily they were able to match that book and nerk get five a piece almost all of those coming in the first quarter for those two also so that

Helps they get bailed out by an awful free throw shooting Night by the Sixers but the Sixers more than double them up in attempts from the line so this was not a game where everything went their way fourth quarter got a little shaky although they had such a

Big lead that it didn’t end up mattering so you win by 1 you have a 20 plus point lead you squelch out the opposing team’s best player and generally take care of business obviously that is the type of response big picture that you wanted to see vogle said you know the effort on

Three-point contests was better the defensive he has a word for it that he always used disposition the defensive disposition was where he wanted it okay check check check all the boxes down the list but temperamentally I guess we could even use disposition big picture not just on defense as vogle likes to

Say did it did it snap into place did it feel like the best moments that this season has given us no it didn’t you know there were still stretches of the game where Durant didn’t seem to get in Rhythm some of that was the physicality from Philly the

Guy got zero free throw attempts despite like three or four different occasions where he and or vogle were blowing up at the refs vogle talked about that postgame so that didn’t help but that Trend did not fully fix itself here at the same time book did a good job taking what the

Defense was giving but I wouldn’t say this was an ace offensive performance from the big three by any means I guess that’s a you know piggyback off of the Durant thing so there were some of those same problems despite overall a lot of the things feeling better but again when

We’re talking about the disposition the temperament of this team I would say the best Vibes we had tonight were during that second quarter which was another candidate’s to do as the moment of the game in my my my eyes when bub had it going when the bench unit well it really

Wasn’t even a bench unit it was bow in place of Beal with the starters and then bow in for Beal and O’Neal in for Durant those were the two half and half lineups that really initiated that run but it felt a little shaky still I think

You would have to admit and I guess the reason we’ve seen this before right the re the reason I bring it up is because it’s familiar now these are we are we good types of games where the you know 23 2023 2024 Phoenix buzzword of the Season body language the body language

Can feel a little bit like it’s asking that question are we good here is everything all right is this going to go sideways this game was not fully free of that and that’s fine is the other thing so it was there it’s often there but I don’t have a problem with it

That temperament that body language at the end of the day I really don’t you know the Nuggets game recently the Lakers win at home on that Sunday afternoon we know what it can feel like when this team is rolling and again it was not like that today but I also don’t

Think there’s anything wrong with the idea that this team gets a little shaken when it screws up when it lays an egg it would be nice to be a team that it would be nice if this was a team that could just snap its fingers and will itself

Into Carefree competitive energy after a dud but if all if the way they do respond is some shaky energy and still winning by double digits that’s pretty good too because it indicates that they care they realize how bad it was on Sunday and yeah maybe they’re overthinking it maybe they’re

Overemphasizing certain things you know they talked about in this game especially early that they were overreacting to pump fix because they were so jittery about the three-point stuff I I don’t mind that and if you’re measuring the response from a emotional perspective and an execution perspective I think there’s a lot worse

That you could do than a B+ where the F the the realization the awareness is obvious got to talk about Grayson Allen how does this keep happening as well as the bench which right after a game where vogul didn’t trust any of them showed up

In a massive way so we’ll get to both of those coming up first Today Show brought to you by better help better help is making therapy easier more accessible more flexible just for you sometimes all we all need the opportunity to get things off of our chests big or small certain

Things can really start to get to you it’s important to let that out especially to someone who’s unbiased about your life so today I want to say how I really feel about something it’s not as serious as maybe other issues may be but you might even be thinking about

The same exact thing this week and here’s what it is I don’t understand Eric Gordon I don’t understand Eric Gordon I don’t know how to analyze him I don’t know what to expect I don’t know if it’s age I don’t know if the injuries are more real than

We realize I don’t know if it’s just a fit thing but even the inconsistency he had down the stretch for the Clippers last season is not the same as 19 minutes 0 of two from the field it makes absolutely no sense therapy can be different for everybody

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Show bench mob Vibe check so I tweeted this out uh in the second quarter that Drew Eubanks and uh bub had both played more minutes already in this game than they did all of the Bucks game I don’t know what on Earth happened against Milwaukee and I’m done talking

About it I promise but tonight was an illustration of why you probably just need to ride the bench unit that you have right because 0 of two like I just mentioned in the ad read from Gordon just nothing nothing night too many of those this year but not unexpected at this

Point Eubanks doing Eubanks things just chicken with his head off defensive decision-making at times and whatever less than 50% from the field despite being you know only taking shots at The Rim some scary turnovers and near turnovers by B he got tallied for two I

Would say if he if he had ended the game with five it wouldn’t have surprised me and Royce O’Neal I think didn’t necessarily have a place to fit in given that this was a game where nurkic could play quite a bit and bull had it going and everything else and yet

Royce finishes with 13- four BU finishes with 10 and three and all four of those bench players have a positive plus minus in the box score in addition yes the last two minutes the White Flag lineup comes out Isaiah Thomas makes his debut but even without that you’re still looking

At Grayson Allen and Devon Booker being in the mid-30s and Durant and Beal only having to go to 36 and 37 so it helps there to actually just trust your pinch now obviously I’m not being ridiculous and saying play them even if it is a disaster but frankly

I’ve made this case plenty of times on the podcast outside of Eubank I don’t think any of the bench is is really a disaster a lot of the time Gordon just kind of disappears O’Neal maybe he’ll miss his threes but he’s a high IQ guy and he plays with effort

Bow he’s really not hurting you that much anymore so this feels like The Sweet Spot 10 to 15 minutes for EU and bull 15 to 20 maybe more for O’Neal 15 to 20 for Gordon and there’s your rotation the last thing on the bench M

Vibe check here is that um fad young got blocked in this game on what could have been a a dunk and you know it’s a little funny but it’s also like maybe a a reminder of the athletic limitations of a guy who is 35 and has been in the

League as long as like just about anybody okay so he was on the 76ers before Sam hinky took over that’s that’s uh that’s what you need to know so just putting that out there last but not least box score Oddity is Grayson Allen’s three-point shooting 9 of 15

From Deep again 93 made at least this time he had that last one where he had a really good chance of seeing that go in and getting to 10 but he also had that additional attempt to prevent him from finishing with an identical stat line of nine for 14 which

He has done two two other times three other times already this season that exact shooting ratio from from three-point land so avoids that as well but really look this is not a surprise anymore the five assists is not really a surprise anymore this guy is consistently aggressive and having

One of the best shooting Seasons anybody will ever have I mean that’s not hyperbole this performance put him back over 48% from deep and it’s not as if he is just standing in the corner making easy open ones he is chucking and still seeing almost half of them go in

Unbelievable the question I really have is like it’s obvious we do this kind of every time of the why do they keep leaving them open and the answer is always well it’s a pick your poison situation and if nurkic is doing his thing setting good screens making plays on the role

Whatever and the big three are doing their thing Allan’s the natural guy that’s going to end up with those open looks and yes fair not going to argue that but the big three did not have it rolling today Beal in particular so to me it’s interesting and I guess

Just sort of fast forwarding to the playoffs as again we kind of think about what the situation might be in these game plans from opposing teams I wonder if especially given that Beal is hesitant when it comes to shooting threes and despite some awesome performances lately driving to the

Basket is still a guy with you know injury-prone history recently and not not exactly like you know this isn’t johnar out there in terms of Just The Fearless soaring into the basket maybe we might see Grayson Allen has earned the idea that we might see teams

Actually play off Beal if he is a spacer in order to stay home on Grayson and just see what happens the thing is though that only works for so long because if you’re going to stay home on Grayson well the Suns can rearrange their spacing and say okay Beal’s going

To be on the weak side now and if you’re going to play off of that then he’s going to get an open Corner three and we’ll put Grayson on the strong side if you’re going to stay on him anyway and you know the reality is at the end of

The day the Suns still have probably you would say the starting lineup with the best overall shooting ability in the league outside of Boston so no matter who they’re playing off of or whatever there really is no good answer it’s just crazy to see these

Nights where Allen is able to get up 15 good-looking threes make more than half of them and the defense still makes the same decision I don’t know it does not does not compute to me don’t forget to sign up for the lockon Suns insiders I will be doing a

Watchback of the second quarter when that bench those bench units were really going I’ll have that ready for the locked on suns Insider subscribers on Thursday so sign up at the link in the show description below or visit join subtext docomo on suns to sign up get

All of that delivered straight to your phone game day observations Suns news and rumors and more subscribe to this show to get another recap episode after Thursday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks enjoy that game and I’ll talk to you then

Bradley Beal led the way on defense as the Phoenix Suns took down the Philadelphia 76ers at home, 115-102.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down Beal’s game and how the Suns responded to a bad loss in Milwaukee. Plus, a strong showing from Bol Bol and the bench and another huge Grayson Allen shooting night.

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