This Suns team is utterly atrocious and cowardly. The Phoenix Suns got absolutely rocked by 25+ points for the second consecutive season in an elimination game as the Denver Nuggets won Game 6 125-100, sending them to their second Western Conference Finals in the last four years.
There’s at most 2-3 guys who should survive the purge offseason.
Despite being at home with the chance to send the series back to Denver in a winner-take-all Game 7 scenario, the Phoenix Suns came out with all the ferocity of a neutered tiger as they got HAMMERED 125-100 by the Denver Nuggets. And, even though the Suns were dealing with some vital injuries, this team needs to be blown up for good!
Before I get into the heart of this discussion, let me just praise the Denver Nuggets as this team has lived up to its regular season potential with a convincing 4-2 series win over a Suns team many thought were nailed-on Western Conference favorites after the trade deadline.
Led by Nikola Jokic (30.7 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 9.7 APG), Jamal Murray (25.9 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 6.5 APG), and Michael Porter Jr. (14.5 PPG, 75 RPG, 1.4 APG), the Nuggets held the Suns to just 107 PPG (Suns averaged 113.6 in the regular season), 38 RPG (Suns averaged 44.2 in the regular season), outrebounded the Suns in five of the six games, and held the Suns to 100 points or less twice…which hasn’t happened to Phoenix since they beat Denver (isn’t that ironic) 100-93 on March 31st.
Denver was easily the better team and deserves their place in the Western Conference Finals.
Okay, with that praise out of the way, WHAT IN GOD’S NAME WAS THIS SUNS TEAMING DOING ALL DAY YESTERDAY BEFORE THE GAME?!?!?!
Were they out partying? Doing yoga until 5:30 in the morning? Playing Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök all night to finally determine which was the better game? How do you get utterly blown out by 25+ points in back-to-back seasons despite getting “better” with resigning DeAndre Ayton, trading for Kevin Durant, and seeing Devin Booker have career high postseason numbers?
It’s unfathomable a team with as much superstar punch and lethality as this Suns team has can get trounced by 25 points in a home elimination game by any team in the league, regardless how high up in the standings their opponents may or may not have finished.
Every single fan of the LA Clippers should feel 10X worse about their team’s 4-1 series loss to this Suns roster as the Nuggets didn’t even play fantastic in 75% of the games this series, which is what many (including myself) thought would be necessary to pull off a series victory.
But, in classic Suns fashion, all of their big stars choked when the spotlights shone down brightest upon them as not only did Chris Paul and DeAndre Ayton miss this game with injuries, but Devin Booker and KD also had their worst performances of the series.
Now, I’m not going to blame KD or Booker much if at all for this loss as you can only do so much for a team before your body wears down or the opponent homes in on you….which is what happened last night.
Durant’s 23 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST and Booker’s 12 PTS, 1 REB, 8 AST would have been passable on most nights (well, maybe not Booker’s 12 PTS, but you get the idea) if the rest of this Suns roster was healthy and not a bunch of G-leaguers, but that simply wasn’t the case as the Suns starting lineup of KD-Booker-Jock Landale-Joey Shamat-Cameron Payne.
If you’re right now thinking, “who the hell are those last three guys”, I’m with you as that’s not a playoff team roster, let alone a team looking to be the NBA champion. I understand Chris Paul is 38 and was dealing with groin issues, but this is not the first time Paul has gone down with injuries during a critical moment of his team’s season.
In fact, this might be the 5th time it’s happened as he missed time during last year’s postseason run due to COVID protocols, he had a debilitating hamstring injury during the Rockets 2018 WCF run against the Warriors (which they ended up losing), he broke his hand in 2016 when he was on the Clippers, and another hamstring injury doomed his and the Clippers quest for the NBA title during the 2015 postseason.
This is unstainable for a contending team, despite Paul’s status as one of the best point guards of his generation, and the Suns should really think about moving on to a younger, more available floor general.
As for Ayton, get that buffoon out of Phoenix as soon as possible.
I hate to come off as a jerk, but Ayton is a total waste of space on the court as he’s not only one of the softest “big men” (as if he is anything like the legendary big men of the past) in the league, but he’s also one of the most ungrateful as he quit on the Suns yesterday with a “rib contusion”.
He got paid a 4-year, $132M contract extension this past season and was given one of the primary roles in a contending Suns team, yet he could only average 10.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG in the five games he featured? And then he couldn’t play in the team’s most important game of the season because he had a bruised rib? Seriously?!?!?
I know he’s going up against the Joker, but this clown didn’t score more than 15 points a night on a single occasion and was constantly getting outjumped for rebounds!
Phoenix might very well be doomed to this mediocrity for as long as the KD-Paul-Booker-Ayton four-headed Frankenstein monster stays around with how much money and term has been put into these guys, but I really feel sorry for the Suns fanbase. The only thing they can cheer for is injury-prone players, G-leaguers, guys who simply couldn’t care less about the franchise, and two actual superstars in KD and Devin Booker.
Can you believe this team was once just two wins away from an NBA championship once upon a time?
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