Official Game Preview: Hawks at Suns

[lethalweapon3]

“My! Three Suns!”

 

Get Off My Well-Manicured Lawn! As tonight’s battle looms between the Atlanta Hawks and whatever passes as the Phoenix Suns (9:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, Fox Sports Arizona) these days, the building frustration over the flameout of the Suns (13-31) has owner Robert Sarver ornery, about… you guessed it… millennials. Kids these days.

“My whole view of the millennial culture is that they have a tough time dealing with setbacks,” Sarver railed recently, “and Markieff Morris the perfect example. He had a setback with his brother in the offseason and he can't seem to recover from it. I'm not sure if it's the technology or the instant gratification of being online. But the other thing is, I'm not a fan of social media. I tell my kids it's like Fantasy Land. The only thing people put online are good things that happen to them, or things they make up. And it creates unrealistic expectations.” This confirms that one of the Suns’ towel boys also runs their Twitter page.

Sarver may be having a tough time dealing with one of the elder millennials, in particular, on his executive team. GM Ryan McDonough may have waited too long to deal Keef after that “setback with his brother” (the more recent setback, anyway), and now has a caustic mess on his hands. The Suns swung for the fences this summer by signing 35-year-old Tyson Chandler to $13 million this year, plus $39 million more for the next three seasons. They wound up with a bloop single, when the move to acquire Chandler was insufficient to pry LaMarcus Aldridge from San Antonio’s grasp.

After getting shaded by Goran Dragic last season, McDonough rewarded Brandon Knight for his half-season of loyalty with a 5-year, $70 million extension this summer. Struggling to keep Phoenix afloat on most nights without Eric Bledsoe (out for season after knee surgery) sharing the backcourt, Knight went to L.A. yesterday to check out an aggravated abductor strain, and is questionable to play tonight after missing Thursday’s blowout loss to Aldridge’s Spurs.

As Dragic, miffed about being crowded out of the backcourt by mates Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas, was getting dealt last February, McDonough also helped out his old buddies (GMs: stop doing this!) by sending Thomas to the Celtics. None of Dragic, Knight, or Bledsoe will be an All-Star this season, but it turns out Thomas has a very good shot. The Suns will get the Cavs’ first-rounder this summer for their trouble, but there’s reason to believe neither of McDonough or head coach Jeff Hornacek will be around town to find out what happens with it.

Horny’s been dead-coach-walking for some time now, but he can at least point to the rash of injuries the Suns have been dealing with, plus the Mole-keiff Morris situation, as reasons for the disappointments this season. He could blame his boss directly, but that’s just something millennials would do before deleting their Instagram posts. Anyway, as of the moment, he’s still there.

Two of Hornacek’s top assistants weren’t so lucky. Sarver canned Mike Longabardi and Jerry Sichting after falling at home to the Suxers, just ahead of a game versus Cleveland, something David Blatt probably found to be a tad rash at the time. With the continued lack of leadership, particularly on the defensive end, Phoenix’s slide has continued (one win in its last 16 games), and now the injuries have reached the point where Hornacek might have to sign a 10-day himself.

Blaming tired legs for Shaqting-a-Fool on a dunk try versus the Pacers on Tuesday, Morris strained his shoulder in the process. Knight and Jon Leuer (back spasms) are officially out tonight, while Morris, Mirza Teletovic (ankle), and P.J. Tucker (bruised chest), are all wild cards to suit up in orange-and-purple against Atlanta tonight. Ronnie Price (toe) recently joined Bledsoe among the guards that were shelved post-surgery.

Hornacek was left with just nine players (two of them 10-day contracts, forward Cory Jefferson and guard Lorenzo Brown) at his disposal on Thursday against the Spurs. In turn, San Antonio disposed of Phoenix in the fourth quarter despite some spirited play from guys like center Alex Len. Chandler (5.4 PPG, 20 blocks in 35 games) has been not much more than a well-paid nanny for Len to this point, but did give Phoenix its money’s worth with 20 rebounds against the Spurs, while Len surprised with a couple monster yams on Spurs monster-rookie Boban Marjanovic.

If there’s one millennial Sarver won’t shake his fist at, it’s the youngest player in the league. Against Indiana, Devin Booker (17.7 PPG, 48.2 FG%, 34.9 3FG% this month) became the third-youngest NBA player to drop 30 or more points in a game, bested only by Kevin Durant and LeBron James. He followed that up by pouring in 24 points and five assists against a tough Spurs defense. This wasn’t supposed to be Devin Booker’s Team already, but the Suns have been left with little choice.

Without Knight, the Suns will again be limited at point guard, leaving Hornacek to turn to Dennis Schröder’s troll-victim Archie Goodwin. There is no reason for Jeff Teague and Schröder to struggle on either end against Goodwin, Sonny Weems or whomever the Suns throw out there to handle the rock.

Even Knight (3.5 TOs/game, 7^th in NBA), often guilty of doing way too much in crunch time, would have created lots of points-off-turnovers for the Hawks. Despite having two top-ten TO-committers on the floor together in Rajon Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins, it was Atlanta who coughed up the ball six times in the final quarter on Thursday, as they failed to mount a comeback against a similarly-fatigued Sacramento team.

Phoenix will try to use Mirza (42.5 3FG%, 12^th in NBA), their healthiest leading scorer in T.J. Warren (11.1 PPG, 41.5 3FG%), and/or Booker to spread out Atlanta’s defense and then use Len and Chandler to crash the boards for putbacks and extra-chance points. But the Hawks (26-18) have the health, depth, and energy to outpace the Suns and use defensive pressure to keep plenty of Suns shots from getting up in the air in the first place.

The Hawks have no excuse for finishing their evening below 110 points, especially coming off the paltry offensive display in Sactown two nights ago. Phoenix started the much giving up 142 points to the Kings and has allowed a league-high 112.0 PPG (40.1 opponent 3FG%, NBA-highs of 48.8 opponent FG% and 29.4 opponent FT attempts) in January. Atlanta is 21-2 when scoring in triple digits in regulation, including 11-0 when exceeding 110 points, 16-1 when surpassing 105.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

 

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[pimp]

Millsap is out tonight -(personal reasons)
So i guess Horford and Splitter will start, or Horford /Scott

All of the Suns power fowards are injured , so the Suns have P.J Tucker...A   6,5 sf playing at the pf postion.
Markieff Morris and Mirza Teletovic are (GTD)

So with Sap out, all you fanduel/draftkings players should put Tyson Chandler in the line up . he just get 15 rebounds easy. He had 20 rebs thursday
Toss Horford or Tiago in the lineup as well. Our bigs have no escuse to not rebound well vs this injury depleted Suns team.

 

Edited January 23, 2016 by pimp

[Jody23]

My condolences to Sap and his family.

[AHawks89]

Expect big games from Teague and Horf. Exactly a year ago, we won our 15th straight game.  :)

[pimp]

6 minutes ago, AHawks89 said:

Expect big games from Teague and Horf. Exactly a year ago, we won our 15th straight game.  :)

We were something crazy like 36 -8 at that point  on the way to 60-22
Seems wierd now with us being 26-18   Already only 4 losses way from last years total.
With 12 games left before the All Star break,  it's possible that we could have as many loses as all of last season., by the Allstar break. 

[pimp]

Markieff Morris is offically out for tonight's game.
 

[Alex]

No Millsap no win.  

[BigDog90]

Hawks should win tonight. No excuse. 

[lethalweapon3]

~lw3

[pimp]

I heard that Alex Len will start tonight and Teletovic is gonna try to play.

[AUhawksfan]

So this is how we play without Sap....definitely showing his worth tonight.

[capstone21]

Idiots ... No Sap excuses ... They were without Bledsoe and Knight

terrible terrible effort ...

27 rebounds for Chandler ... WTF 

This settling for three is killing us

attack the damn basket ... Box out ... Teams are going to the free throw line while we are missing threes 

this game pisses me off more then the Sac game 

a change is needed ... We need a big who can rebound ...it can be off the bench but we need someone now ... And don't say Edy ... He sucks

[Lurker]

Gonna lose by 35 at the Nuggets on Monday.

[Lurker]

And then lose 3 straight games to end the month as well.

[BigDog90]

Teague needs to get benched. The offense is only as good as the PG play.

[rd79]

down the wire Baze's missed free throw cost us the game. if he'd made it SUNs would look for a quicker basket and we could have countered them

Edited January 24, 2016 by rd79

[LamarHampton]

Anybody think a change doesn't need to be made?

[Guest]

Shameful loss.  Just ... shameful.  Sap just solidified his all-star berth.

[Lurker]

The rumor was that if the team didn't look good over this road trip, there would be significant changes.

 

Well those significant changes need to start Monday or I'm done watching and hope its a 10 game losing streak. Teague and Korver out of the starting lineup for Schröder and Hardaway Jr. Teague needs a good kick in the head reality check.

[LamarHampton]

Coach of the Year? 4 All Stars? My how far we have fallen. Losing to essentially a Dleague team with Tyson Chandler.

What the F is going on people?!?

Pathetic. Damn pathetic. I don't know what else to say.