We're All So Screwed If The Suns Continue To Go The Entire Postseason And Basically Never Miss A Shot
Newsflash, the Suns are a wagon. That should surprise exactly zero (0) people who have even casually paid attention to the NBA over the last 2 years but it's the truth. While a lot of the focus today might be on the performance from Chris Paul last night
I want to step back a little bit and talk about this team as a whole. Devin Booker called it a revenge tour in his postgame presser and I'm starting to think that should terrify the rest of the NBA. First, there's this little nugget
so right off the bat if you find yourself in a series against the Suns, you better pray to whatever God you choose that your favorite team isn't trailing heading into the fourth quarter. To be honest, it's also not a great situation to be tied or even within a few possessions because once a game gets into clutch time minutes the Suns remind you that they are the best clutch time team in the NBA. Where this gets tricky is they also almost never get blown out. You can see why they only lost 18 games all season, that's what tends to happen when you don't have too many weaknesses.
I think most teams and fanbases were ready to accept that the Suns were really good. What I don't think many expected would be this new reality where the Suns are basically never going to miss. Take last night for example
Uhhhhh what the hell.
So far in this series, the Suns as a team are shooting 56.9% from the floor and 45.3% from behind the arc. Read that shit again and try and tell me that's not terrifying. Oh, and if you care about this sort of thing, they are also shooting 92.3% from the FT line as a team. Good luck trying to find someone to foul on that roster. In their opening round, they shot 52.3/31.9% but remember they were without Booker for a few of those.
You go up and down their roster this postseason and the individual shooting production is outrageous
Devin Booker: 48/47%
Chris Paul: 58/33%
Deandre Ayton: 67/50%
Mikal Bridges: 56/50%
Cam Johnson: 48/36%
Jae Crowder: 39/25% (smh)
JaVale McGee: 81%
Cam Payne: 35/18% (smh)
If you look at this second round series against the Mavs, things are even better. For example, Jae is shooting 61.5/60% so far. Cam Payne is up to 50%. Paul is at 62.1/42.9%. It's getting a little ridiculous, even if this is a "small" sample.
What makes this so devastating is it's not like the Mavs have a bad defense. In fact, it's the exact opposite! They finished the season with the 7th best defense in the NBA, but they also had the 4th best defense as soon as the calendar turned to 2022. They were a top 5 team at defending the three point line and were just outside of the top 10 in opponent FG%. In terms of opponents' points per game, they trailed only the Celtics for the fewest of any team in the league. Their defensive turnaround under Jason Kidd is what helped spark their mid season turnaround as they finally found a way to start getting stops and with that came the wins.
You would think that if any defense in the West had a chance to limit what the Suns could do or at least make things difficult, the Mavs had the defensive profile as a team that might have had a chance. Considering they've given up 121 and 129 points and have allowed the Suns to have 132.3 ORTG to start this series, I feel confident in saying that this theoretical defensive success is nowhere to be found. The fact that it's not just one or two guys is what truly makes trying to beat the Suns seem so impossible. I would understand if Booker or Paul were the only ones lighting it up, they're stars. They've proven they can ball out on the biggest stage.
Now I know what you may be thinking. No shit the Suns are shooting so well to start this series, they are at home and everyone usually plays better at home. I thought about that too so I looked it up. In the 3 road games the Suns have played this postseason, they are shooting 53.4% from the floor as a team. It hasn't mattered! I know your instinct is probably telling you that the Pelicans have a shitty defense so of course the Suns would shoot well in their building. Since the trade deadline, they were right around 13th in team defense, so it's not like they were a dumpster fire. It just didn't matter because of how good the Suns are.
Logic says there's no way they can keep this up for an entire postseason, but at this point I don't know what to believe. None of this is really a fluke considering what we've all watched these last 2 seasons. It's not like Paul/Booker/etc are going to stop finding ways to get extremely efficient looks. If they move on, perhaps the Warriors or Grizzlies defense will have better success as they are two more elite defensive groups, but it's also possible that the Suns are simply on another level and have no plans of ever leaving. The playoffs are about matchups and so far there has not been a matchup that has proven they can limit this team offensively from a shooting perspective.
If nobody ever does, the revenge tour will be complete and the Suns are going to win their first ever title.