Valley Oooop(sie)!!
Oooopsie by golly wow!!!

Not letting off on the defensive end, including rebounding well would go a long way. What I expect from Phoenix in game 2:

A) More aggression on the offensive glass and more minutes for Okogie, possibly Landale as he’s also a player who can win a lot of 50/50 balls. Counter: push the pace after defensive rebounds and potentially cheat off Okogie a bit on defense.
B) More cuts.
C) Shamet being a focal point and getting more shots. Counter: stay attached and attack him on defense, EG, Russ and Powell are ideal to do that.
D) Booker taking more 3s and possibly doing more in isolation.

What also makes me optimistic: RoCo is another option and he wasn’t even missed tonight. But defense wins championships, we’re gonna need him and we need a similar performance defensively from the bigs, on the perimeter and vs Booker. Try to take away more of his drives. Russ/Zu worked that beautifully, Mann can contain him some, EG will need help. Keep Westbrook and Kawhi on KD where you can, he played well but didn’t look comfortable vs those two.

We only had 13 turnovers. Coach Dunleavy said many moons ago that you need to have less than 13 turnovers to win games. The Suns missed a lot of shots that they would normally make.

Russ has to be more careful with his passing.

Russ — truly Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. WTF. During different parts of the game, Russ gave me such stress.

The usual NBA playoff script has the home team or the more desperate team having certain advantages in energy, execution and officiating. I don’t think that will be the case in these playoffs, because this regular season has been one of the most taxing in history. All of the teams, and especially those who finished 5-10, have been in playoff mode since the all star break. They understand the margin for error is slim and I think they’re taking every game like it’s an elimination game. That’s why we had road teams or perceived underdogs like the Knicks, Heat, Clippers, Lakers, Kings win with big time performances. There’s no feeling out period in the playoffs anymore.

So I do think the Clippers can and should win Game 2. Once you think you have certain advantages, you have to press them hard. KD played 45 minutes tonight and had a near triple double. Run him out of the gym on Tuesday night.

• Timing was good but after timeout plays gotta be much better
• Adjust defensively to Booker. Whether that’s more minutes for Mann relative to EG or instead of Russ or schematically via help depends on their overall performances, shooting and how EG himself can adapt.

• TERRIFIC start defensively
• Nico and EG hitting open 3s got us the first lead
• Tough to score but Gordon and Kawhi carried us through the first
• Great composure by Mann to not react to CP3’s shenanigans (he tried all night)
• Shout out to our bigs: they were HUGE on the glass
• Kawhi absolutely sensational
• Westbrook no less, on defense. And a huge 5 offensive boards. Kept the turnovers low as well and never let any offensive player get comfortable.
• As mentioned before, excellent quick close-outs that saved some 3s. We were down 70-77 with 4:10 to go in the 3rd. Another quick close-out by Russ that caused the screener to move, Suns made 3 was waived off, turnover. Phoenix had all the momentum but somehow, from that play on I knew they were gonna come back. That and Kawhi struggling but diving on the floor vs Booker were the two plays that epitomised this game for me.
• Norm’s scoring and creation were big. Once again, he was the release valve from stifling defense that gave us some easier baskets. Hugely important.
• Good job in general contesting 3s. What we gave up were mostly midrange Js or an occasional open 3 to Craig. Booker and KD though, they were contested really well and combined for 3-10 from deep.
• Apart from one timeout that was a little late, good timing by coach Lue.

Negatives:

• After the first quarter, Eric Gordon was our biggest problem imo. On offense, he turned extremely stagnant and went 2-8 (1-7 until his last 3), on defense he struggled mightily with in particular Booker and we didn’t get stops anymore.
• The elephant in the room, Westbrook taking that many shots and not being able to buy a bucket whatsoever. Why did he shoot so much and why did EG’s offense drop off? See analysis part (I’d appreciate other perspectives here, especially with regards to how the Suns defended us).
• In general, I liked the way this game was officiated, physical defense was mostly allowed. It brought the best out of several players. That being said, there were two big exceptions to this: a) Kawhi didn’t get nearly enough calls, ridiculous how much contact he took without a whistle, in particular in the 3rd quarter. Officiating was one factor why the Suns had their biggest run there. b) Booker got extremely lucky. His third foul in the 2nd quarter inexplicably went to Ayton, allowing him to further play physical defense. He got another obvious one in the 3rd that should have been his 4th (when he stood over I think it was Mann, got away with the taunt as well – which I’d kinda like if the refs allowed it for both sides). That being said, I agree with the announcers, Booker played out-of-his-mind on defense, bias or not, respect.
• Transition defense gotta be better
• Mann on the high end with 4 turnovers to 2 assists, also missed his open 3s.
• On defense though, how do you not have Russ and Mann on Booker earlier?

Big picture, HOW did we play the Suns and why did the first two negatives occur?

• Defensively, we played very, very well. Apart from Gordon vs Booker, it was mostly good shooting by the Suns or turnovers/missed shots and transition defense where we struggled. Other than that, we gave up very little. Only 6 offensive boards for them. But: for that very reason, I expect Okogie to play in game 2 and the Suns to attack the offensive glass more. Landale possibly as well. Be ready!
• This one is gonna be the biggest issue over the series if we don’t adapt: we got the lead initially when we collapsed the defense and got EG and Batum open 3s which they made – and COMPLETELY went away from that. Nico wasn’t involved after the first 6 minutes, Gordon wasn’t set up for QUALITY looks after the 1st quarter. Why that’s such an issue? 1) It kills your offensive balance. Now you have to rely on Kawhi, Russ and Norm to make things happen vs a defense that cheats more and more. 2) Because of 1, shot attempts for those guys go up while average shot quality goes down. Workload also goes up. 3) You get situations like broken plays, with EG or Russ receiving the ball with 5-8 seconds on the clock out on the perimeter, the defense set and they need to make something happen. EG struggled mightily with this over the middle quarters. 4) Your spacing is gone, making it even harder to score. 5) With worse spacing, you gotta FORCE foul calls instead of being one step up on them, either scoring or going to the line. When you don’t get the call, you bleed points in transition. 6) It kills the rhythm of shooters, in case of Gordon that could have cost us the game. Fortunately he made his last 3.

The second unit didn’t have good spacing either but they out talented the Suns
bench, pretty much feasted inside and it was as a little easier to get stops.

• Great job of staying aggressive and attacking the rim on the other hand. I see possible foul trouble for the Suns. If you don’t get fooled by CP3, he can’t defend much. It’s pulling the chair, trying to provoke and benefitting from experience, anticipating passes etc. Sound and composed vs him and one should be efficient vs him. Booker had two quick fouls. We failed to exploit that, helped by fortunate officiating for Booker. Got Craig into foul trouble, important. KD and Ayton both had 4.

Conclusion: I’d double down on the aggression in game 2. We are deeper. On most
nights, anybody but Zu and Kawhi can afford a little foul trouble. The Suns can’t. If
one of their starting 5 sits, there’s some drop-off (Okogie for Craig, similar defense
but doesn’t space the floor as well) or a major drop-off. Physical, aggressive play
should be our friend. That’s another reason why I mostly liked what the refs did, no
techs either, physical playoff basketball with a lot of hustle, good watch.

In particular Russ gonna be better on offense. But we gotta play the right way, with 6 or 7 guys in double digits if possible and shooters involved, better shot quality on average while maintaining aggression around the basket.

Westbrook’s block and throw off Booker’s leg was awesome. But it also made me laugh: After the block, Booker was already complaining to the ref while Westbrook was still playing hard. Booker was not even paying attention while Russ threw it at him.