It was not the first time this season that the Footprint Center reacted in this way. Seeing his team sink in the second half, up to 24 points behind, the public timidly booed their Suns. A relatively rare attitude in the playoffs.
“ They expect a lot from us and they pay their hard-earned money, and they deserve to respond the way they want. It is our duty, as players, to use it as fuel, and I hope that it will give us wings for the next match », displays Kevin Durant.
He and his teammates will have the beginnings of a reaction at the start of the fourth quarter, but the locals will never be able to get back below the ten-point deficit. The Arizona men were starting too far, because they completely collapsed in the third quarter.
Defensive adjustments
There are several on the Suns side who sum up this period with a simple: “ They fired, and we didn't. » Frank Vogel thus notes that after Jaden McDaniels, another unexpected player came out of his box: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, author of four 3-point baskets in this period won by the visitors (36-20).
But “no” assures the coach, his team has no mental problem approaching these third quarters from which they have regularly suffered this season. The concern is broader than this simple question of shooting success. Bradley Beal is one of those to put his foot down, citing problems with ball circulation.
In this decisive period, it was obvious. We also saw the former Wizards player instruct his teammates, with a gesture of his hand, to move after he received a screen at the head of his racket. These concerns about fluidity in attack can be attributed to another central aspect in this series: the physical dimension.
“ They put KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) and Naz (Ried) on KD, Ant (Anthony Edwards) defended on me to start the match, it was not (Mike) Conley. So they try to avoid small 'mismatches' with Conley as much as possible. If we compare the sizes, their defenders are taller than the three of us, they do a good job on that », remarks Bradley Beal.
The big gap in rebounds
Contrary to what the adage sometimes says, in this series, size beats speed. Already dominated in rebounding during the first two rounds, the Suns completely faltered in this sector last night: the Suns finished with 28 small rebounds captured, or… 22 fewer than their opponents (50), who captured three times as many rebounds. offensive rebounds (15-5). The big gap is also verified in the points in the racket (56-36).
“ We were dominated, we got killed on the rebound. They are bigger and stronger than us. We must fight, win the battle of '50/50 balls' », Regrets Frank Vogel who had already given his troops a reminder during the break. He adds : ” Some guys give us matchup problems when we try to help these guys. We must ensure better rotations than tonight. »
Do better to hope to steal a match from these intractable Wolves who now lead 3-0. Knowing that no team has come back from such a gap to win. A challenge ” exciting » for Devin Booker, where Bradley Beal adds: “ I've never been swept in my life. I'll be damned if that happens. »
Frank Vogel concludes, thinking about Sunday's match: “ There is no giving up in our group. We play for pride and for an opportunity to continue fighting. This group does not want the season to end. »
Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
Kevin Durant | 75 | 37.2 | 52.3 | 41.3 | 85.6 | 0.5 | 6.1 | 6.6 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 27.1 |
Devin Booker | 68 | 36.0 | 49.2 | 36.4 | 88.6 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 27.1 |
Bradley Beal | 53 | 33.3 | 51.3 | 43.0 | 81.3 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 18.2 |
Grayson Allen | 75 | 33.5 | 49.9 | 46.1 | 87.8 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 13.5 |
Eric Gordon | 68 | 27.8 | 44.3 | 37.8 | 79.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 11.0 |
Jusuf Nurkic | 76 | 27.3 | 51.0 | 24.4 | 64.0 | 2.9 | 8.1 | 11.0 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 10.9 |
Royce O'Neale | 30 | 25.1 | 41.1 | 37.6 | 69.2 | 0.7 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 8.1 |
Bowl Bowl | 43 | 10.9 | 61.6 | 42.3 | 78.9 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 5.2 |
Drew Eubanks | 75 | 15.6 | 60.1 | 100.0 | 77.4 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 5.1 |
Chimezie Metu | 37 | 12.1 | 50.8 | 29.4 | 88.4 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 5.0 |
Jordan Goodwin | 40 | 14.0 | 38.9 | 28.8 | 86.2 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 5.0 |
Josh Okogie | 60 | 16.0 | 41.7 | 30.9 | 74.5 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
Keita Bates Diop | 39 | 15.3 | 42.7 | 31.3 | 72.2 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 4.5 |
Yuta Watanabe | 29 | 13.2 | 36.1 | 32.0 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.6 |
Nassir Little | 45 | 10.2 | 46.0 | 30.0 | 85.0 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 3.4 |
Saben Lee | 24 | 7.7 | 36.4 | 12.5 | 74.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
Thaddeus Young | 10 | 8.9 | 52.4 | 0.0 | 33.3 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 2.3 |
Udoka Azubuike | 16 | 7.1 | 69.6 | 0.0 | 23.1 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 2.2 |
Isaiah Thomas | 6 | 3.2 | 30.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 |
David Roddy | 17 | 3.7 | 43.5 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
Theo Maledon | 4 | 3.3 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 |
Ish Wainright | 4 | 4.1 | 16.7 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.8 |