Wolves at Suns R1G3

[thedoper]

What a great game. Edwards dominated every facet of the game. We powered through an awful whistle. Tony Brothers sucks.

[Crazysauce]

How lucky are we to get to watch Ant. Kid is special. Literally reminds me in ways of MJ. It's so crazy.

[kekgeek]

Not to get emotional (I’ve had a couple of drinks tonight) but I watched Chris Johnson and Michael Gelabale get MVP chats 14 years ago in college and being stoked that the wolves beat the rockets in a 25 win season.

We have suffered, I don’t think anyone understand the shit we have watched in our lifetime. I mean Cool mentioned less board activity recently but this board has been through so much. From every dogshit draft pick, to every player we needed to talk our self into.

Job not finished but this feels so good. Now go and win a championship.

[Porckchop]

Ants looking more and more like a player that will leap past fellow stars because of his dedication towards def, lack of reliance on the 3 to score and willingness to utilize the midrange game that puts pressure on the defense. I feel like when teams depend too much on the 3 ball they are vulnerable to off nights that leads to frustration and loss of confidence.
It used to be that good defense would result in them settling for a 3. Now they take them early and often which bales out the defense and allows the other team to have fresh legs for the other end.

[FNG]

Another decisive win. Looked a lot like game 1 with the buttkicking we gave then on the boards...50 to 28 last night!

I was concerned with our energy level in the first quarter...the defense just didn't look like it did in Game 2, and the Sun's 32 points were the result. Fortunately KAT and Ant made some big shots, and we were up 2 after the first quarter. But the defense in the second and third quarters looked more like what we have seen the past week...the kind of stifling defense that wins championships.

Another terrific growth game from Ant...love seeing him try to draw a second defender in so he can hit the open man. But despite Ant's brilliance, I give the game ball to the same guy who I gave it to in Game 1...Alexander-Walker. Even though his shot was off early, I thought he was the guy who sparked our defensive surge that turned the game around. And his 4 three's in the third basically iced the game. Not surprising he was a plus 23 to lead the team. Here's my definition of depth...we have a player off the bench who just won DPOY, but we have another guy who is arguably even more valuable off the bench.

I love hearing national media guys astonished when they see Rudy's quick feet as he jumps out to defend the perimeter. We've been seeing it all year, but it's new for a lot of these guys. They expect to see a guy lurking around in the paint like a typical shot blocker, but instead they are seeing a guy who wants to defend every three-point attempt. The Suns went 23 minutes or something at one point without a 3-point attempt, and while our wings are the main reason, Rudy also had a lot to do with that. Our defense got a little lax in the 4th and the Suns started hitting threes, but I can't blame our guys...it's tough to keep up the perimeter intensity when you're up 20!

But come on, guys...when you play the kind of aggressive defense we play, and the other team plays a much looser defense, you're generally going to get called for more fouls! Lots of whining in this thread about the referees getting the memo to stop the Wolves, but I really didn't see too much that upset me. And guess what...despite their laissez faire approach to defense, the Suns actually ended up with one more foul than the Wolves! Could it be that it halftime Adam Silver got the word to the referees to start calling more fouls on the Suns? Could be. There was a lot of grumbling in Phoenix about the refereeing in Game 2 (I thought it was just fine), and I expect it is the same today. The refs do the best job they can, and there's no conspiracy against either the Wolves or the Suns...even though fans of both teams will claim there is!

[Q-is-here]

Mike Conley, Naz Reid, NAW and Jaden are collectively, a great supporting casts to Ant/KAT/ Rudy. All four of them can go off from the 3 any given game and all 4 are dawgs who play hard and defend hard every game.

We have not needed much from slowmo or Monte this series but those two are pretty solid and useful as well.

Good to hear from you worldK!

I love how Finch used Slomo in this game....never with Rudy as that would destroy the floor spacing and for brief stints when he was needed out there with Naz or KAT. Perfect.

I'm still iffy about Monte over JMac. I know Finch is going with the more battle-tested PG, but JMac was truly outplaying him to end the season. Oh well, can't complain too much.

[Q-is-here]

Not to get emotional (I’ve had a couple of drinks tonight) but I watched Chris Johnson and Michael Gelabale get MVP chats 14 years ago in college and being stoked that the wolves beat the rockets in a 25 win season.

We have suffered, I don’t think anyone understand the shit we have watched in our lifetime. I mean Cool mentioned less board activity recently but this board has been through so much. From every dogshit draft pick, to every player we needed to talk our self into.

Job not finished but this feels so good. Now go and win a championship.

Well said Kek! Love it that we have some diehards here (including you) that have stuck through this thing. This team has a real shot, even to my skeptical eyes.

[Q-is-here]

Ants looking more and more like a player that will leap past fellow stars because of his dedication towards def, lack of reliance on the 3 to score and willingness to utilize the midrange game that puts pressure on the defense. I feel like when teams depend too much on the 3 ball they are vulnerable to off nights that leads to frustration and loss of confidence.
It used to be that good defense would result in them settling for a 3. Now they take them early and often which bales out the defense and allows the other team to have fresh legs for the other end.

He also isn't a foul merchant, so as frustrating as it can be in the regular season to see others game the system to their benefit, the playoff whistle is going to benefit the good faith actors like Ant that come by his FTAs in legitimate ways. He helped put the game away last night with those aggressive drives in the 2nd half, none of which involved throwing his body or arms into people in unnatural ways.

[Jester1534]

https://x.com/worldwidewob/status/17840 ... 5cfuRiyKQQ


Ant man is the best

[rapsuperstar31]

This is a game Phoenix needed if they wanted any hope. This game couldn't have started better for Phoenix getting 2 fouls on Rudy, Kat, Bite bite, and Naz all in the first quarter. 2 on Kat when he was heating up, Kats 4th when again he was heating up. Phoenix also got 5 fouls on Jaden, Mike, and NAW with 8 or so minutes still left to go. They got our guys in foul trouble and even if there were some questionable calls given the nature of how they've swallowed the whistle in most playoff series so far, they were mostly actual fouls with us getting our hands in the cookie jar. Getting some our best defenders in foul trouble is exactly what they wanted to do, and they succeeded in that. It wasn't even remotely enough, the next man up came out and played great. Our defense was just incredible running them off of the 3pt line for multiple quarters.