stormkoopacv03
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It's amazing how the Suns make it back to the playoffs for the first time in a long time and they're almost back to the nba finals.
NON-JAZZ NBA PLAYOFF thread
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fishonjazz
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And couldn't make any open shots to save their lives. It was pretty horrible offense. Of course you can try to defend it by saying they "fought hard" and were spent and while both of those things might be true, it was still horrible offense.
jazz4life1992
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Its not unheard of. I mean even the Warriors in 2015 were a "surprise" to make it all the way to the Finals (even though they had made the playoffs in previous years).
The talent isn't the same, but if they can keep Ayton, Booker, CP3, Bridges, Johnson, and Payne somehow together for another 2-3 years, they are going to be hell to play.
All of their guys except for CP3 are under 25 years old. except Payne who I think is 26 (?).
jazz4life1992
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It resembled the Nuggets/Jazz Game 7 1st round game last year. Just chaotic, no flow, no shots being made, just an all out scrum.
Thats basically what 90s basketball was in terms of visuals at times offensively, but the intensity from both teams was evident tonight. It was a basically do-or-die scenario for the Clippers given how tired they have to be from playing every other day.
fishonjazz
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Look at this consecutive stretch of gameplay. Literally no scoring from either team lololololololol.
I challenge someone to find a play by play from another game that matches this.
I mean not even a free throw.
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I challenge someone to find a play by play from another game that matches this.
I mean not even a free throw.
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nothingbutnet
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The Suns have had one of the easiest paths ever to the Finals.
No Davis for the Lakers
No Murray for the Nuggets
No Kawhi for the Clippers
All of that coupled with them having great health. In an alternate reality we get the 2 seed and are 1 game away from making the Finals. The entire outlook on the the team would be drastically different. Our best chance at a title is to re-sign Conley and go for it the next 2-3 years and see what happens. Let the chips fall where they may.
No Davis for the Lakers
No Murray for the Nuggets
No Kawhi for the Clippers
All of that coupled with them having great health. In an alternate reality we get the 2 seed and are 1 game away from making the Finals. The entire outlook on the the team would be drastically different. Our best chance at a title is to re-sign Conley and go for it the next 2-3 years and see what happens. Let the chips fall where they may.
Ineptimusprime
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Yeah, we just need a slightly different supporting cast.
fishonjazz
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jazz4life1992
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Its all what-ifs though. And I don't think thats easier than LeBron's cakewalk path to the East Finals for nearly 8 years with Miami and Cleveland.
Every team has had to deal with injuries this year. It is what it is. I'm not going to discredit whoever wins the Finals this year because of the compressed schedule and such a short turnaround, plus all the COVID stuff.
Its not fair to whomever makes it that far and wins to do that IMO.
fishonjazz
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Agree with this too.
Some tweaks. We have a pretty damn good core.
Thing that sucks is we could make some tweaks and they could be all the right tweaks and still not get there next year. Injuries could happen again. Durant, Steph, lebron might all be there. Jokic with Murray. Kahwi.
This year was our best chance and we ****ing blew it.
Talking **** about the suns is therapeutic for me. I'm far from over the jazz being out of the playoffs. Probably won't be over it until next season is going.
Hell I was rooting for the suns until everyone started sucking their dick and acting like they are perfect and the jazz are garbage. I'm one of the only cp3 fans on this site. And they have a bunch of likeable good young players. But that **** pissed me off. **** em, I want them to lose now just to shut everyone up. (They probably won't lose now at this point though lol)
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I don't agree.
If he was healthy and Mike wasn't then yeah, it's a yes for sure.
CP3 is also a better player than Mike so yeah, having a better player is probably better.
You must be pretty excited since your favorite teams still have a shot. I'm sure if they lose you can just switch to your next most favorite and root for them.
7 day is less than 182 days, btw. Sorry to disappoint.
jazz4life1992
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Are you assuming hypothetically CP3 gets COVID in a Jazz-Suns WCF where the Jazz have homecourt? I could see where Utah wins both those games, but the Suns are tough man. Payne was balling until he got hurt with the ankle injury.
I think a 1-1 split is more realistic and with the way Conley looked in Game 6 against the Clippers, even that is iffy. The Suns really have 5-6 wings (I completely forgot about Nader returning from knee surgery) that can defend at a high-level and are capable of contributing on offense. In the modern NBA, that is golden. It would've been a bad matchup for the Jazz, unless you're telling me the Jazz somehow get Patrick Beverley on their roster to break Booker's nose.
The Thriller
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We have one guy who plays defense out on the perimeter (Royce). Oni fouls. And no one else either can or tries to defend. Both the Suns and Clippers have 5+ guys who can lock down on the perimeter. That makes a difference. Especially when the lane is a wide open freeway for us and Rudy is getting blamed for failing to stop guys from getting layups and for failing to get out to Mann’s corner 3s.
Really, we just need a lot more length and defense. It’s a shame we couldn’t have drafted a few guys like McDaniels last year to give Rudy some help. JT Thor would be really nice this year... we just gave up way too many draft picks for Conley. I hope when Memphis wins the title in the next few years they give us a piece of the trophy. It will have been won in large part due to the draft picks we sent to them.
fishonjazz
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Conley had a very good defensive rating this season.
Bogey seemed to be stepping up his defense in the playoffs. I saw him defend kahwi better than anybody else did this post season.
Jingles has been known be a good defender. (Smart and long though not athletic). Our defense worked great with the exception of small ball. The suns like to play Ayton.
Game one vs the jazz kahwi was 9-19 (47%) for 23 points. Pre injury he was averaging 30 points and 57% shooting.
PG13 was 4-17 (23%) for 20 points. Both under his playoff averages.
No one in the clippers starting lineup was a plus in the plus minus.
Gobert had a double double with a couple blocks.
Jazz win
Game 2 kahwi was 8-17 for 21 points (minus 8 in plus minus)
Paul George was 8-18 for 27 points (minus 12 in plus minus)
Only zubac was positive for the starting lineup (plus 1)
Gobert had a double double with 20 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Jazz win.
Zubac minutes went down each game. By game 3 he was out of the starting lineup.
By game 5 he was down to 8 minutes.
Game 6? 5 minutes.
Against the suns zubac came off the bench in game 1 and played 18 minutes.
Game 2 he started and played 34 minutes.
Game 3 started and played 32 minutes
Game 4 he started and played 39 minutes.
Lue made great adjustments against us and small ball killed us. Suns have Ayton. He isn't small.
Jazz defense was just fine when Rudy could be Rudy. It was better than fine in fact. It was great. We were the 3rd rated defense in the league iirc. We were the best team in the league defending the 3 and the paint. We were the best team in the league keeping guys off the free throw line. We were great against transition defense. Our defense would be fine against ayton and the suns. The suns just scored 84 points against the clippers defense lol.
The jazz scored 112, 117, 106, 104, 111, 119 against that same clippers defense (with no Conley). Suns scored 92 points in game three against that same clippers defense.
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vegas
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I think fish's comment on recency bias is spot on. This team has given more than they did. Where was headband Joe? Where was 50 pts BB. where was the new improved minivan. We got punched and played skeered after that for 4 straight games.
I'm still baffled we didn't dig deeper.
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I'm still baffled we didn't dig deeper.
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NAOS
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There’s plenty of evidence to build a case that we aren’t a very stiff and resilient team, mentally speaking. Without my homer goggles on, I’m left unsure how someone would be surprised that the jazz melted down or “didn’t dig deeper.” After all, our exits seem to be pretty dramatic, year after year.
vegas
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Tale of 2 different Jazz teams. Killing it this morning fish.
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fishonjazz
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Btw having said all that, the suns are a very very good team (so were the jazz). I think (and always thought) that a jazz vs Suns series would go 7 games. And maybe the suns win. Maybe the jazz win.
In the regular season the jazz and suns played each other twice when the jazz were healthy. Both games won by the suns. The first meeting was 106-95 suns. That game was in slc. At this point the jazz were 2-2 and not in their groove yet.
The other game was in phoenix and was 117-113 suns in overtime. It was tied (obviously) 102-102 at the end of regulation. Conley was 5-16, Royce had 2 freaking points, Clarkson was 4-12 (this was during his long slump). Mitchell was amazing and had 41 points. Gobert had 16 points, 18 rebounds. Bogey had 20 points.
Cp3 had 29 points and 9 assists. Booker had 35 points.
To me that game is indicative of what the series might look like. Suns won that game in phoenix in overtime. I think it would have been an epic 7 game series to see who goes to the finals. Really sucks we didn't get to see it. Jazz would have been able to pay their normal offense and normal defense. Suns wouldn't play much small ball or zone defense.
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In the regular season the jazz and suns played each other twice when the jazz were healthy. Both games won by the suns. The first meeting was 106-95 suns. That game was in slc. At this point the jazz were 2-2 and not in their groove yet.
The other game was in phoenix and was 117-113 suns in overtime. It was tied (obviously) 102-102 at the end of regulation. Conley was 5-16, Royce had 2 freaking points, Clarkson was 4-12 (this was during his long slump). Mitchell was amazing and had 41 points. Gobert had 16 points, 18 rebounds. Bogey had 20 points.
Cp3 had 29 points and 9 assists. Booker had 35 points.
To me that game is indicative of what the series might look like. Suns won that game in phoenix in overtime. I think it would have been an epic 7 game series to see who goes to the finals. Really sucks we didn't get to see it. Jazz would have been able to pay their normal offense and normal defense. Suns wouldn't play much small ball or zone defense.
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