Is this the one thing that is actually wrong with the Phoenix Suns in the 4th quarter?

Is this the one thing that is actually wrong with the Phoenix Suns in the 4th quarter?

The suns are kind of playing like in a prevent in the fourth quarter they’re up 26 and they’re like okay we don’t want to like completely this up so we’re just gonna take it be calm be cool be lack of days to go on offense try to keep this simplistic instead of saying

We’re up 26 let’s beat these guys by four and that’s my biggest thing I think it’s psychological MCO we brought it up at the beginning of the show I didn’t want to get into it to start I thought we needed some positive vibes which is usually counterculture to

What I am but you know I now I want to get into it fourth quarter I look at the Suns you know and I go okay what did Plaxico burus and the suns in the fourth quarter uh have in common included inflicted hey I know PLO

Bro did he not did he not do that I’m just saying he he did he did I hope pla ain’t watching pla I love you dog I I have nothing against don’t blame me for this guy to the top left shoot himself in his leg with his own

Gun I I get it I I get that they didn’t collapse fully tonight but they were up 27 in the third and this game uh you Pucker a little bit in the fourth I mean I I know I’m not the only one uh Gerald is this we’ve talked about it is this a

Pattern when it comes to for it it’s it’s a pattern it’s concerning it’s not something I expect to continue lasting but I’ve said that for a couple weeks I do feel like there was a little bit of a hiccup in between with Bradley Beal taking the shot to the nose the last two

Games he hasn’t been Bradley Beal tonight he looked more like Bradley Beal um nerk wasn’t there last game you can make excuses I think tonight the Zone was what threw them off a little bit and I thought they got good looks for the most part um you know they kept the

Turnovers low throughout the game they had a couple in that fourth quarter that led to some heat Breakaway points but I I just feel like it’s a mental block at this point it’s it’s one of those things where they miss a few shots and it that

Feeling of oh no here we go again kind of creeps in and it impacts how they’re executing how they’re shooting how they’re defending and other teams can pick up on that they can sense it and especially on the road you know a home crowd can get behind that too and it

Makes it that much harder to get stops to make those buckets to silence a crowd it it just feels like something that continues to snowball and I’m not really sure what how you fix it I don’t a lot of people are pointing to it’s a coaching thing I don’t know what you do

Coaching wise like he brought Booker in two minutes into his rest in the fourth quarter because it was already starting to snowball it was an 80 run in those two minutes so he brought Booker in to try to stabilize it I don’t know what else you’re supposed to do when you have

Your three best players on the court to try and stem the tide there so it’s just one of these mental hurdles are going to have to overcome and you hope that with more cracks at it with more reps together it’ll finally start to fix itself but I do think there’s something

To play Devon Booker the whole first quarter normal first half rotation second half maybe pull him a couple of minutes before the end of the Third put him in to start the four so that you don’t spot your opponent six to 10 quick points like they’ve been

Doing you know I I think there’s a couple things that are in at play here again in this particular game The Zone yes it threw him off but the funny thing about the zone is when players see the Zone they just think oh okay let’s just pass it along the perimeter let’s just

We won’t even try to penetrate attack kick out like they just stopped it just was just Swing Swing Swing Swing Swing Swing now they got open shots you can’t say they didn’t get open shots KD hit a couple they had other open opportunities but again taking the ball to the rim I

Was screaming at the TV like somebody take the ball to the basket please Bradley Beal a little bit he he’s he’s gonna find it so all these things are curable and I think they will cure it at some point but Bradley Beal a little too

Hesitant for my liking he needs to be a little bit more aggressive cuz he is one of the better ones on the team taking the ball to the rack hard and aggressively uh he pulled up for a little elbow jumper wide open and damn near airall it like that that to me

Tells me like tightness nerves you know that butthole gets a little tighter in that fourth quarter apparently for the Suns you gotta you gotta man up like you gota just not stop you gotta stop thinking about that and just go and that’s that’s the thing for me that I

Wish I would see a little bit more and Bradley Beal did take the ball to the bucket hard one time he missed it but aogi got the tip back dunk that’s why you do that those kind of things or you get fouled so I need to see them

Penetrate a little bit more again I feel like this all goes back to movement it’s always movement when you’re moving and you’re flowing there’s a reason why coaches if they feel like you’re in a funk and you can’t snap out of it what do they do they say okay we’re going to

Full court press because it gets you into the game full court running and you’re pressing pressing pressing you’re creating action and I feel like the suns are a little too timid in the fourth quarter with big leads and just kind of like are trying to draw out the clock it

Hasn’t worked for them they need to they need to switch up the pace a little bit more stay aggressive Flex you’re muted sorry my brother you want to see the do if you want to see the dog hit the like button we got a we got 715

People in here hit the like button and we get to 200 you can see the dog Flex what did you make of uh of the fourth quarter and how do you think it can be rectified moving for yeah no I I agree with everything y’all said I mean I I do

Believe that is something that will get rectified I I don’t think it’s some like I when I look at it I it’s like a new it’s like a nuisance like what do you it’s just bothering me but I don’t think it’s non I don’t think it’s something

That’s not correctable what I will say is I do you see this a lot in football you’ll see a team with a lead and in the fourth quarter they play not to lose instead of to win they’ll go in them prevent defenses you played a certain way the whole damn game

And then with two minutes left you drop everybody back and you kind of just let the game change in a way because you change what you’re doing the suns are kind of playing like in a prevent in the fourth quarter they’re up 26 and they’re like okay we don’t want to like

Completely this up so we’re just gonna take it be calm be cool be Lac ofical on offense try to keep this simplistic instead of saying we’re up 26 let’s beat these guys by 40 and that’s my biggest thing I think it’s psychological you know we talk about the

Devon Booker minutes what can you do can you can you fluctuate like Gerald said in between the game and get booked to start the fourth but guess what the counterargument to that is well you were up 26 because he ended the third right and so you gotta kind of balance it out

Like are we gonna have good fourth quarters and shitty third quarters now so I I don’t know but it’s not a it’s not a quick fix but yeah I mean the the fact that we were up 26 and went into the fourth quarter up 26 28th I

Stand I stand corrected so that you gotta give there’s a part of me that can’t unsee that and I’m like they they did enough to win this basketball game in three quarters I’m not going to go crazy with how the fourth quarter transpired and I’m never gonna go crazy

When you beat the Miami Heat on the road by double digits so yeah would we have like to win by 20 yeah look around the ba people don’t beat people by 20 all the time it’s just it’s a tough league so uh I’m not tripping on the fourth ESO

I’m still not I think they just got to make some adjustments and they’ll get it they’ll get it figured it out I get it’s a tough League I I get that you know all these factors but what I don’t understand is how this team that has Kevin Durant Bradley Beal Devin Booker

They can’t seem to hit a shot you know and in the fourth quarter at least to start it I mean can I ask you can I can I ask I want you to answer this yeah oh damn okay he got he got mad at me for

Asking that question he got he got that dog in him all right he got that dog I’m gonna ask you this question okay when Devin when Devin is resting to start the fourth who are the primary guys his sons have on the court B and

KD so like I look at KD tonight and he got 15 shots and I see people in the chat saying oh he needs more than 15 shots well damn it that’s the time like that’s the time Devon’s on the bench look at the dog my guy

Salute to me that’s what that’s where my problem is I’m saying if Devin’s on the bench and you got five six minutes of Brad being with Kevin Durant what Kevin this is the time for Kevin to go bang and I I’m just so when people say 15 shots for Kevin Durant is

Not enough I’m saying you’re right it’s not enough let’s go back and look at those five minutes in the fourth and and see why Kevin isn’t taking those shots or why Brad isn’t taking you know so it’s one of those things that they’re gonna have to figure out but I like to

Think that Devin should be able to go to the bench for four or five minutes and Kevin and Brad should be able to hold down that forward like they should be able to get theirs and and and and do what they’re supposed to do and to tonight I saw them go completely two

Minutes it went from 28 to what 18 in two minutes it’s it it but it’s not just tonight either this is a Perpetual thing at the beginning of the fourth and is it is it because Brad can’t handle you know the the ball dut ball handling duties or

KD can’t in there like I I don’t there’s got to be something that’s sitting there in plain sight that just you know doesn’t make sense there in those fourth quarters and I I I don’t want to believe it’s just as simple as Devon Booker’s not on the court because it starts to

Bleed in when he comes back it’s already snowballed and it and in a lot of these cases it continues I mean it’s all is it as simple as Devin Booker’s not on the court no no no it’s more than that there there’s far more than that there’s been

Other things you know listen we’ve had fourth quarter problems All Season whether it was one two or all three of the big three being out like it didn’t matter we’ve had some of the same things and what we’re talking about here is is not even like Devon Booker um Reliant

Like we’re talking about guys that are missing wide open shots even with Deon Booker on the floor or off the floor it doesn’t matter you got to hit those open shots uh turning the ball over or being a little sloppy uh wide openen threes on the defensive end that’s not Deon

Booker’s responsibility when he’s off the court everybody can play defense like so I don’t think it’s completely um just Devon Booker does Devon Booker help of course he does I mean like he’s he’s a phenomenal basketball player of course he’s gonna help but I don’t think it’s

Just that that you can point to and say oh yeah that’s that’s the reason you know you know what I would like to say too sorry sorry I just thought this at the beginning of the game they created they their first like three four possessions they really tried

Hard to create action to get KD the ball because you could tell like you know they wanted to make sure that he was into a flow he was he was you know engaged in the game and and ready to go towards the end of the game I would have

Liked to see a little bit more of that because listen Kevin Durant is is your best scorer like he’s just he’s he’s phenomenal and he down near never misses and so create a couple little little offensive you know like you know quirks or whatever you

Want to call it wrinkles um to to get him the ball and and in Prime opportunities what I don’t like is seeing Kevin always in the same spot every single time down the floor um I would like to see him move around I would like to see other things happen to

Put him in a different position have him flash to the to the to the mid elbow or or the the nail or something like that they didn’t really do too much of that you know and so I would like to see them throw a few wrinkles in from now on what

What happens to the pick and roll and the motion like we saw that in the first half it worked so well and then all that disappears in the fourth as it The Zone I mean jar when you Dro in the zone it changes everything well I I don’t I

Don’t I think there’s this idea when the sun stops scoring that they’re not running actions because sometimes the play devolves into ISO and I think it traces back to one problem has been that when the Suns run an action sometimes they don’t get into their next action

Soon enough and I think that’s been a problem I think the fact that they were in a Zone threw them off because I think in recent games they had done a little bit better job of getting into their second actions but against a Zone you know that that’s going to change the

Equation a little bit and I do think like as basketball fans we tend to sometimes judge possessions by the emotion of the game at that time and by makes or misses because a lot of times the shots that they’re creating in the first half or the first three quarters

Are designed to get one of these guys an advantageous ISO or a position where they can attack and it looks like it’s one-on-one but everything that led up to that is designed to get them to attack a certain player or from a certain position those things are still

Happening in the fourth but when the shots aren’t falling it’s a lot easier to look at it and say okay well they didn’t run enough and I think tonight against the Zone they did not because again it’s a Zone and I think that totally threw them off out there but

This kind of also goes hand inand with I feel like this team still needs a backup point guard because in those fourth quarter minutes when Booker’s not out there like Beal is supposed to be that guy and sometimes he’s good at being that guy but he is more of a secondary

Creator at this point and I think so is Kevin Durant I think if you want to get those two guys especially going get them good looks make sure that the misses don’t snowball to start the fourth a backup point guard to put those guys in better positions would be really

Beneficial there um so that’s kind of the biggest thing I see it’s not that the Suns don’t run offense it’s that their actions devolve too quickly and they’ve got that mental block man they got to make some shots and suddenly nobody’s gon to be talking about how much they’re moving on Offense

The Suns might have held on against the Miami Heat in the 4th quarter, but it wasn’t too smooth of an ending. The PHNX Suns podcast tries to diagnose what the root of their issues is.

SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKaPEqS_Mc6eGNNBQN1QgQw

Website:

Home

PHNX Locker:
PHNXLocker.com

Social
Twitter: @PHNX_Sports
Instagram: @PHNX_Sports