POSTGAME: Phoenix Suns, Devin Booker EMBARRASSED By Clippers In BLOWOUT Loss

POSTGAME: Phoenix Suns, Devin Booker EMBARRASSED By Clippers In BLOWOUT Loss

Well, the bad news is the Phoenix Suns almost lost by 30. The good news is they’re still on pace to smash the overunder set by Vegas. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Psychos and sickos unite for a oneinone edition of PHNX Suns presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app. Use code PHNX365. Deposit 10, place a bet for five and get $200 in bonus bets. I’m Sad and I’m Eric. That’s Stephen. We got Espo, the freckled Mamba behind the Mac making all the magic happen. You forgot the other group that today’s post games brought to you by L Costa Nostra. When you hear that music, thank you all so much for joining us on a Friday night. Goofy Tube 28BH28. Kev, Priscilla, Cara, Sunsfan, Kev, AJ, Michael, AZ, BG. Appreciate everybody who is spending their Friday night with us, especially our members whose names are green, and have access to exclusive emojis that you can get access to today by hitting that join button, which is next to the subscribe button, which is right next to the like button as well. Make sure you hit all of those if you’re listening on audio. Five star reviews go a long way as the Phoenix Suns lost 129 to 102 to the Los Angeles Clippers. A lot to break down from today, but our initial reactions to the Suns uh losing in dramatic fashion. The Suns paid Bradley Beal $243,000 to help beat them tonight. I mean, this is what it can look like when they’re not controlling those controllable elements of the game that they’re kind of prioritizing in the um in this new era for their identity when it’s not there against a team with more talent, team with more shot making. This is what it can look like at times. Yeah, I mean, look, there is a lot that went wrong with this game. I think off rip, there were some things that went good. Uh, part of this does come down to the fact that the Clippers did get extraordinarily hot from deep, which sure does play into the Suns defense, but James Harden was hitting crazy thought shots. Uh, Derrick Jones Jr. was hitting crazy shots. Chris Dunn was hitting threes. Kawhai was hitting a bunch of shots as well. Not that it doesn’t excuse how the Suns played tonight, but LA did catch fire for a lot of it. Yeah, but you’re supposed to be a group that’s predicated on defense is kind of the idea that we were sold on. Uh they didn’t exactly play quality defense tonight. That was a big part of the problem. But most of us think optimistically 38 39 wins is is kind of the ceiling, right? You can’t lose 40 some odd games without losing one. like this is going to happen on numerous nights this season and we know that you’re prepared for it. It’s what little things can you get better at night in night out. The one thing that I think is beneficial is some of these guys that are part of that firefighter group that Nigel Hayes Davis was talking about could work through some things in in that back half which maybe play some dividends. Nigel in particular uh got kind of a rhythm on his shot. That’s when you have nights like this that you got to look at, okay, are those little things maybe something that that carries over. But we’re going to see a lot of this this season. Yeah. I think the other part of it too is if you’re looking at it as a whole, when Jaylen does come back and when Mark starts to play more of the minutes that he’s expected to and the the role that he’s supposed to be in, that means it puts the other guys in the positions that they’re more apt to play to as far as roles go. How does that kind of change the the way that things kind of eb and flow because of who’s in lineups when over the course of games? Uh just little things to keep in mind to not be too Debbie Downer about a game against the best team that this team has gone up against, including preseason so far, but also a team that has championship aspirations. I mean, yeah, the Suns were 10-point dogs tonight going into this game against a team that, yes, got blown out by the Jazz, but their roster construction tells a completely different story. I do want to talk about the Jaylen Green aspect and the Suns missing it because I know we’re going to focus on defense. The Suns had 70 plus points put on them in the first half. Yet again, the Clippers scored 129 points. Certainly, the defense has not been over the entirety of these two games. Exactly what we expected. But where I felt like this game was truly lost was when Devin Booker was off the court in the first half and the Suns just did not have somebody who could go out there and get you a bucket. We spent a lot of this off season kind of lamenting Jaylen Green’s shot selection and the fact that he would take shots that he probably shouldn’t be, but we’d be praising the way that he creates them. And the Suns need another shot creator out there. This team does not have enough talent to get by without it. I agree that you need Green and I agree that his shot creation is important, but if you go back and look at that stretch you’re talking about, bench scoring was 1414. It felt like it felt like they gave it up. But the problem was you weren’t playing good enough defense against Kawhai or James who was in with that bench group. And when they got hot, that’s when that’s when things really swung. And and maybe Jaylen could have given you somebody to battle that a little bit offensively. But again, I you need him because he is going to be such a big part of your offense, but you also need a guy like Grayson Allen uh not to be one for eight to start a game in shooting because that’s that’s a death note. You need your defense to play at a much higher caliber uh you know to to help you be able to win. Jaylen Green’s part of it, but him missing tonight wasn’t the only reason why that that pendulum swung and swung so vastly. Yeah. The thing for me was the defense though, because we talked about it in the the pregame show that it’s not a team that should be going up against other teams in the half court time after time after time. If they’re spending a lot of time in the half court, that means that their defense isn’t getting the job done. And that’s exactly what the difference in the game was. First five or six minutes, they were active defensively. They were the more physical team. They set the tone, which is one of the keys starting with the defense. Middle of the quarter comes, maybe the late end of the middle towards the back end of it. Harden gets going and it’s because of slip slips and in um in coverage and just generally not being sharp with their defense. Also, a ton of offensive rebounds conceded at the end of the first quarter in particular, too. Those are realms that they just don’t have the margin to not be dictating to their opponents with with this with this roster. From your from your IBS, you look at the game in a very specific way. Was there a a flaw in the defense in terms of guarding the three-point shooting or was this just a case of the Clippers just shooting unworldly uh from from deep at one point in this game? It was the the rebounding honestly because I I can’t remember how many they got in the first quarter, but they were outrebounding the Suns and off on the offensive boards especially too. If you give a team with those type of shot makers multiple shots on goal, it’s not going to work in your favor. I know we’re talking about the defense and Jaylen Green and and I I do think that these are all things that we can expand on more and touch on more, but honestly the the story of tonight and I think the thing that we need to spend a lot of time right now talking about is Devin Booker’s game. Because Devin Booker ended the game with 18 points, seven assists, and three rebounds. Okay, for most NBA players, that’s a pretty decent night. For Devin Booker, it’s not good enough. He was shot 10 times this game. He was five of 10 from the field. He only had five attempts in the first half. Devin Booker is the best player on this team, bar none, especially when Jaylen Green is not out there in the lineup. And through all the deficiencies the Suns had in guarding, in rebounding, and the other team getting hot, this team will go nowhere this season. Nowhere if Devin Booker takes five shots per half. That simply can’t be the case. Dylan Brooks took more shots at him. Grayson Allen took more shots at him. Royce O’Neal took more shots than him and Colin Gillespie took more shots than him. Devin Booker’s got to put his foot on the gas pedal and he’s got to push it all the way down off rip. I know he likes making the smart and the right play, but right now the right play is for him to shoot the damn basketball. Well, yeah, you can’t have him take only a ninth of your shots in a game. They had 90 shots. He took 10. I agree with you on that front. I also know that it feels like he’s early on trying to get other guys involved. Uh and and that that doesn’t bother me in early in a season. I I understand the value in trying to gain confidence, but yes, there needs to be some point where he just takes over and says, “Okay, other guys, it’s not working real well right now. I’m going to I’m going to go into that overdrive mode and and score. But, okay, he had 18 tonight. He had 31 in game one. I I’m not going to overreact in in either way right now after two games about Devin Booker. And in no way, I’ve seen a lot of, oh, this is because they don’t have a point guard. It’s the point book problem. It’s not that. That’s that. We need to get that out of our mind. I know we were so conditioned in Phoenix to care so deeply about point guards because it was so much of the identity of this franchise, but there are not real point guards in the NBA anymore. It’s about multiple people that can initiate offense. I’m learning from you, CC. Uh and and that’s that’s what it’s about. This was just about not picking his situations well enough tonight, not being aggressive enough early in the game, and by the time he was in that third quarter, it was already too late. That’s the That’s the part where when you don’t have a traditional point guard, you see some of the flaws with some guys because it’s not easy to be a game manager while also wearing the hat of a primary scorer. That’s what made Chris Paul who he was. That’s what made obviously James Harden the player he was. Steve Nash at different extents. Those are three different types of primary ball handlers, but three of the best at wearing that scorer playmaker mentality. Um, wearing both of those hats in limbo over the course of games. Uh, but I do agree that Devin has to take more shots. But I also acknowledge the part that there’s a process to it. There’s a buildup to it. And when you’re in these foundational days, you’re getting your offense established. you’re defining roles. No one has a question about what his role is. Other guys are trying to figure out where they can fit in into the system that they’re running. So, if he’s coming in and he’s just taking every shot that’s available, obviously no one’s going to bat an eye at it, but what’s the what’s the domino effect from that? Are you kind of setting the tone for everybody else to kind of pick up off of over the course of the season, or is this just going to be it and there’s no change in that? That’s my thing. And and I get what you’re saying, right? Devin Booker doesn’t need to be a complete ball hog and never pass the ball. I’m not I’m not saying a ball hog either, though. But what I’m what I’m getting at is if he’s coming off of all of these screens and he’s taking a pull up midi or pull up three every single time when they have this spacing concept that’s opening guys to take specific shots and they’re being preached to trust the pass. Obviously, there’s a balancing act that has to take place with it, but if you don’t lean into the trust the past part first and then start to get to your own, they’re gonna be trying to figure out, okay, if he’s not buying into it, then why are we going to buy into it? And nobody’s saying crap if if Grayson Allen hits like five of those shots that that he missed and and this game is closer in that in that first half, especially in that second quarter. Like I if that’s the principle of the offense, I agree. You got to try to stick with it. But I think there was a point where it turned and he had to be more aggressive late in that second quarter when it felt like things were starting to get away. Then I’m okay with him taking over and it didn’t feel like that clicked in. No, it it gets to a certain point, right, where especially when you’re down when the Clippers are making a run and I understand part of that was when he wasn’t on the court. your star player just needs to to put his stamp on the game and do more. I understand that people need to fit in their roles and they’re figuring stuff out. Listen, I Devin Booker is my favorite basketball player of all time. Devin Booker is going to be fine. Like he is not going to be a major problem this season. But the thing is we talked all summer all summer about this is the first time in Devin Booker’s prime. This is year 11 and the first time on a team where he is actually in his physical prime that he is the clear-cut number one guy, number one option, which means every single night, you know that you’re going to need Devin Booker to score in the 26 to 35 point range for you to have a shot, let alone win a game against a good team on the road. He’s got to he’s got to just take more shots. Like it’s it’s look, you look at Anthony Edwards took 20 shots tonight. Minnesota still lost by 18. You look at Steph Curry. Steph Curry took 22 shots tonight as Golden State lost by 20. When stars are down and their back is against the wall and they have the talent that Devin Booker has because he’s got that talent. There needs to be a point where you’re like, look, I get that the right pass now is to to pass to this guy and pass to that guy. But I’m Devin MFing Booker and I need to take this damn shot. You can’t take five and a half, man. You just can’t. I I get that. But also, if he played in the fourth, they’re slightly closer. He has 25 points. He shoots He shoots 16 17 time like but it wasn’t close in part because he wasn’t taking shots early on in the game and the Clippers got hot and then the game was out of hand. I get it by that point. I it’s it’s a delicate balance with all that. It is a delicate balance with all that because I I I agree, like I said, at some point in that second quarter, he needed to take over. But early on, if he’s if he’s trying to to stay within this offense early in the season and and try to set up other guys, I get it. Would I like him to be first quarter book that we got to know and love? Yeah, I would. But also, you talk about all us saying, you know, this is the this is the year that he’s the man. Well, part of being the man is being the guy that’s setting the tone and leading. And part of that is sometimes as that leader, you have to try to get other people involved because the only way that they’re going to win is if everybody finds that place uh as a team. Could he have kept it closer? Yeah, they still probably lose if it’s just Devin Booker chucking shots and still probably lose by 15 at that point because at some point he’s going to need all those teammates that he’s trying to get involved. And if early on he just says, you know what, it’s my show and I’m just doing it myself, you’re going to alienate all those guys, too. And there’s a there’s a management of the game that comes with if you’re playing to that. You throw a couple of skip passes, you make a couple of passes early in the game to set the parameter, to set the terms of play for later on. If they’re, let’s just say a team is double teaming them or they’re aggressively switching against him, but he’s not making passes early in the game. Why would a help defender feel like they need to feel like they’re going to need to make an extra rotation and not just wait a beat longer to shrink the floor on him if he hasn’t shown that he’s willing to make a pass early in the game? There’s trickle down effect from it. One of the plays I’m thinking about Grayson there. Deon Booker had the ball in his hands more in the first quarter in today’s game than he did at any point in the first game. He was on the ball more than he was off it in today’s game compared to the first one. If he’s coming off of these screens and he’s not making an extra pass to Grayson who kind of cuts underneath and gets a wide open look on the other side of where Deon Booker was coming from. If he’s not making that pass early, then the defense is not going to pay any attention to anybody else that’s off it. And what is that going to do? Now all of a sudden we’re going to hear the conversations about, oh my god, the spacing. Oh my god, he needs help. But it’s about how you’re kind of leaning and playing into the game. There’s a setup effect to it. He’s making that pass early. defenses are going to be a little bit more susceptible to stand off of crashing the space for them. That’s gonna give them a little bit more space to work with. Eric, where do you stand on this? We need We need We need another voice. I was going to say really quick. It’s just like a It’s like a running It’s like a quarterback that can run. Yeah. If you’re a quarterback that can run, are you using your legs right away or are you setting it up by pass all game to where it’s the fourth quarter and now all of a sudden you break containment and everybody’s, oh man, he’s been passing it all game. But I got to stay in coverage. And now he takes off across the line of scrimmage and it’s to Patrick Mahomes where he picks up a first down. Real quick to that point though, I feel like it’s reversed. I feel like it’s this is a guy who should be passing the ball like in the football sense like and he’s running it every time. Like he’s not doing the thing he’s best at. He’s a fantastic facilitator. The dude is the best at putting the ball in the bucket and setting the tone and it’s what he needs to do. Eritton, what do you think? I think we saw a good example of what I think you guys want Booker to be with James Harden in the second quarter. If Booker gets into his rhythm early instead of trying to facilitate to his teammates, he has a chance to go four for four from three and shoot one from almost half court and knock it down. I think we all know Book can do that. So, I think I think I said it in the uh chat with this squad, he’s got to set the tone early and then take a backseat once the Firehouse gets a rhythm. And that’s the thing. I when I say this stuff, and I think with with your guys’ responses, I don’t like fully disagree with you guys to where it’s it seems like what y’all are responding with is, hey, he’s got to get other guys involved. He can’t just be the only guy on there. They’re not going to win games. I agree. But the thing is Devin Booker has to be the one that goes first, or at least he has to do that in games like this. Listen, you can’t you can’t be outshot by Dylan Brooks every half, man. You just can’t. It’s Deon Booker. We know he’s going to make the right pass. We know he’s going to get his teammates involved. If somebody’s wide open, he’s going to pass them the ball. But there were multiple opportunities in that first quarter, in that first half where he could have shot the ball and he didn’t. He is the superstar of this team and he can make it. If he took those and he missed them, you’re sitting here complaining that oh my gosh, Devin Booker was being a ball hog and his is like I’ll go down with I will go down with the ship with Devin Booker shooting shots on this team. He’s the best player on this team. He is bar none the best offensive option. you live with him taking double digit shots and a half over anybody else on this roster that like I get what you’re saying. I should have, would have, could have. But now I’m saying he’s passing the ball and they’re missing. It’s a make or miss league. He still has to do that with a better balance. He doesn’t need to lean fully into one way, but he cannot just take five shots on the fact of if he took more, he might miss it and then he’s a ball hog. No, but I I agree he needs to take more, but I just I don’t want him just going into full I’m chucking mode every time because I’m the best guy on the court. That’s not going to be an effective way to run this either, especially when Jordan Kn’s trying to establish his offense. And we’re acting like he didn’t just drop 31 points in in game one on Wednesday night on 19 shots. This guy can score and score effectively still and do it within the system. And yeah, he needed to take over in that second quarter, but I don’t need to see him be the only guy pulling up early on. Like I I just I don’t need to see that. Do I need to see Dylan Brooks shoot a little less? Yeah. But I think that’ll naturally happen when Jaylen Green’s the guy coming in uh on there, too. Like I there’s a balance. So, uh I think I think this is a good conversation. And I think we all want the same thing, which is I don’t know. I don’t know if we do. I think we do. I don’t know if we do. No, I think I think it’s pretty clear you want something different than Hey, here’s the thing. And I And you’re not getting off of this state. Oh, I’m not getting off of anything. I’m doubling down and I’m bunkering down cuz I think that I’m right about this and we can keep going right after our first break. One thing I know we can all agree upon is that Rally House is the go-to shop for all your favorite local Arizona team gear with tens of thousands of products to shop from in Tempe, Mesa, and Glendale today. And also, it’s not just in person, but it’s online. Hundreds of pages and pages and pages of all your local sports teams gear. I see stuff at Rally House that I don’t see anywhere else. And I’m always keeping an eye out for the latest, freshest Arizona sports gear. It’s everything. It’s not just shirts and shorts and hats, but it’s drinkware, signage, coolers, socks. Hell, they even have sunscreen at Rally House. And every time you visit Rally House, you’re guaranteed to find something new, unique, and that matches your game day vibes. 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If you want to hang out and talk before our pregame show and then we can watch the game together and we’ll do our postgame show from Wild Horse Pass, go bnx.com/events to RSVP for free. Uh we’ll get to a couple super chats here in a second. I listen, I hear what you guys are saying about you don’t you don’t want to lean too far into one thing. And I think where I am being misunderstood in this conversation from you guys is that I’m saying Devin Booker needs to shoot the ball more and needs to be more aggressive. That by no means it means that Devin Booker won’t look to get others involved, won’t look to make the right play and do the right thing. That is one of the best things about his game. M my thing is you can go and make the right pass pass off the beginning and if somebody’s hitting shots that’s great but there should be no world where the right play for Devin Booker is to shoot the ball five times in a half. No, I I agree. We both agree with that. But but what and what I’m saying is this is something that for him where he was playing with Katie and he was playing with Beal and it was like that was the reason for it, right? It was okay. He’s he’s deferring to other guys. He’s making the right play. Devin Booker is making the right play. Making the right play. making the right play. Listen, the right play right now is for Devin Booker to be your offensive engine and to make defenses react to that. Your point about well, if he’s not hitting somebody on the pass, defenses aren’t going to respect it. If Deon Booker has 15 points in a quarter, if Deon Booker is actually shooting the ball more than five times in a half, hell, I’ll have him shoot it two 10 times in a half. Dylan Brooks does. If he’s doing that, defenses react to that 10 times more than making the pass. You can’t compare his shots to Dylan’s though, Eric. He needs a little bit of what Dylan does. He needs a little bit of it. A little bit of that I don’t give a [ __ ] attitude. No, you can’t compare the two. For one, they’re playing two completely different roles. They’re okay with Dylan shooting shots. They’re not okay with Devin Booker shooting shots. The other part of it, too, when is Dylan taking his shots? Is he taking his shots after he comes off of a screen or he’s working in one-on-one in isolation? Or is he getting it after Devin Booker’s done one or two or six different things? They’re in the middle or late in the shot clock and somebody’s got to put up a shot. And in the starting lineup that they have right now, the only other person that can go and create their own shot is Dylan Brooks. I think that’s the you can’t compare his shots to Deon’s because they’re not taking them in even close to the same context. I the thing I take numbers with with what you just said was you hearken back to last year. Deon Booker averaged 20. He was a top 10 scorer and a top 10 assist guy in an off year in in a quote unquote off year. He’s an awesome basketball year in a year that you’re claiming he he deferred like this is we’re we’re looking at a microcosm of one game that was a a rarity that he only shot five shots and I think we all agree that he needed to shoot more of them. I just don’t want to see him become a a chucker that’s that’s just shooting shots because he feels like he has to be the guy that’s just only doing that. he needed to take over in in that second half of the second quarter and do what we saw him do in that stretch in the third quarter where it was get in that rhythm and take one a you know one after another when he got to it got to his spot. I this was a weird night. Uh a a different night in terms of the way it went. And I I just I’m not going to I’m not going to freak out over this one when we saw him score 31 uh in in the other the other night on Wednesday, right? Like this is this is a weird weird game uh that they got the doors blown off of them and nothing seemed to work particularly right the way you wanted it, including the amount of shots that Deon Booker took. The Suns got back in the game against the Kings for a variety of reasons, but one of those is Devin Booker said, “All right, it’s my time now.” Like, he he did in the second half compared to the first half. He absolutely did in the second half compared to the first half. He deferred in the first half. And and and again, that was a time where the Suns then got down. The Suns, like you mentioned, Stephen, can’t afford to be playing from behind. And I if you’re going to be down 15 to 20 points, you’re going to need a Deon Booker to shoot you out of that hole. But the only way to not get in there is like your best player just needs to do a little bit more. I think Devin Booker is going to be fine. I think he’s a fantastic basketball player. I probably have him higher in the NBA like top whatever top 10, top 15 than everybody in this room right now. But that’s why the standard that I’m holding him to is extraordinarily high. I get into this whenever I talk about like the best athletes in the world. He needs to be held to a higher standard. One of the reasons he’s a top 15 player in the league is because he passes the ball though too. like it’s not because he just goes out there and he’s a volume shooter. The reason he’s become that is because he’s been efficient at shooting and he’s developed the ability to distribute the ball. So, you can’t ignore one uh and and just be like he needs to be a chucker. That’s why he’s a top guy. That’s not what I’m saying. That’s I’ve never once I’ve never once said that. I said he needs to do more of that. I never said he needs to ignore the other side of it and said that multiple times. Like I like I think and Sean said it. I think we are closer than what this conversation is showing, but the way that we’re communicating it like isn’t clicking because again we both know he has to do both. I feel like I’m back in couples counseling and talking about communication. You’re Let’s move on to another topic and we can argue about that. Let’s talk about another I’ll say lastly again Devin Booker claim to what the role that he’s the status that he’s established in the league is that he’s one of few players that can get you 30 points a game but also get you 10 assists with four or less turnovers while demanding all of the attention of the defense and do this picking you apart on a possession by possession basis. What was it two years ago against the Golden State Warriors? they’re in Golden State and he has like 30 something like 14 or 15 assists and everybody’s oh my god he’s such a good kind of manipulator of the game. You can’t be a manipulator of the game if you’re leaning only into one or the other. So the overarching point which I said before I spoke to anything about the process of playmaking. Yes, he needs to take more shots, but he also has to take make certain passes to get to that point, but also which which Espo brought up, fourth quarter, he didn’t play. That’s 10 to 12 minutes potentially that he just didn’t play that he couldn’t get shots on goal. So, if he ends up with 19 shots on goal, he took 10 today. If he takes nine in the fourth quarter, are you still batting the eye of his shot profile? I think my argument is he would have probably played the fourth quarter if if he did a little bit more earlier in the game. Oh, then and that’s that’s my whole thing right there because this game was not lost because he wasn’t taking shots. I already pointed out the inflection point in the first quarter. The defense was at a point that it wasn’t at after the halfway point of the first quarter throughout the rest of the game. That’s where the game was lost in Tana with them losing their effort on the margins. When you lose that, you it doesn’t matter how many shots Devin Booker is taking. If James Harden has 30 and Kawhi Leonard has 27 in addition to that and then someone else on the Clippers has 14 or 15, they’re not built to withstand teams playing games on their terms. If the Suns aren’t playing games on their terms, are you still okay with Deon Booker taking 25 30 shots? I think no matter what the Suns do, they need to play on their terms. They’re not an extraordinarily talented team compared to a team like the Clippers who have an extraordinarily high payroll. The thing is, they need to play within themselves. They need to play great defense. That’s a huge part of why they lost today. and that’s the biggest reason and de and and both of those scenes can be true at the same time. It’s not I don’t think that’s the context for this game, man. I don’t think that’s the context for this game at all. We just got done watching 48 minutes of them playing to their identity, seven or eight minutes of that and the rest of the game wasn’t played on their identity. So, how can it be contextualized as Devin Booker has to take more shots when we just watch them not be able to contain the ball? So James Harden is coming off a pick and rolls getting whatever he wants. We talked about it on the live stream. You can’t let him be a playmaker and a scorer. It has to be one or the other. And you would rather him take more shots than be setting people up. But to the point while we’re having this conversation, what was James Harden doing early in the game? He’s coming off of pick and rolls, testing the depths of their coverage, and he’s making skip passes to who? Derek Jones Jr. who’s doing what? Knocking down threes. You can’t get to having Kawawaii with 30, Kawhi with 27, James Harden with 30, and then Dererick Jones Jr. scoring double digits, knocking down multiple threes if James Harden, your primary ball handler, is not willing to test the depths of the coverages that he’s seeing by making the pass. And that’s setting the tone for him to then also, okay, now y’all worry about me making the skip pass. Now I can hit Zubot on the roll. Now you’re worried about Zubot getting hit on a roll. Guess what? If that big is not up at the screen, now my pull-up three is there. There’s a domino effect to when you’re at the helm of an offense to where if you’re not pulling the strings in the succession that the game is asking for you to pull it to, your offense as a whole is not going to be it. When you’re at the helm of an offense, it’s not about you doing your thing. You have to orchestrate the entire opera. And if you’re not doing it that way, that’s going to come back to you a whole lot more than you just simply not taking enough shots at certain at certain times. Yeah. I I just feel like this is you’re looking at a very small moment in a very long season and this game again was a very weird game and the way things went. If this becomes a pattern then it’s a problem. But I also don’t want to see Devin Booker start shooting 2530 shots a game. Uh because they you think that that’s just some way to to get out of problems. I want Devin Booker to be Devin Booker. I want Devin Booker to be an efficient scorer. Uh you know it 31 points on 19 shots, seven assists. Like that’s going to be your path to win mixed with good defense. But right now odd game we all agree. could have taken more shots starting in that second quarter when things started to slip to try to stem the tide offensively when guys like Grayson uh were missing and weren’t connecting on those shots. But this is not a problem. This is a a simple moment in time that I think we’ll look back and go weird game. That’s why I say it’s not a must-win game. There’s too much learning. But what I’m what I’m saying is I’m talking about this game right now. We only have two games to go off of. And in both those games for the good and the bad, we’re going to analyze and talk about that. And then there’s the rest of the season to prove patterns and stuff, but it still happened in a game. It still happened in front of my eyes. I’m still going to talk about and like like Stephen said, this was not I don’t think this is in my top three reasons why this team lost like this. Not for me. No. And and again, people saying somebody tell Eric the Suns lost by 30. Yeah. And they lost by 30 for a large variety of reasons. We’ll we’ll move off of book and I get it. I I do think it’s a very interesting conversation. And I’m very curious what all of you say in chat. And of course, let us know on Twitter, too. Uh what you guys think your your comment about Harden, I agree. You set it up and go, you make passes. By no means am I saying balls tipped, Devin Booker go shoot five shots off rip and see what happens, right? But the difference between what James Harden did and what Devin Booker did was yes, James Harden’s teammates were hitting shots. That was a a difference with making the pass, but also b when Harden had the opportunity and had the go-ahad, he put his mark on this game offensively from a scoring perspective, whether it was driving and drawing fouls, which of course he’s fantastic at and he got the best Sun’s best defenders in foul trouble, or whether it was that second quarter onslaught where he was just firing away from three. The thing was he pulled the strings and Deon Booker can pull the strings, but once they were pulled, they did two different things. Devin continued to pull one way and James Harden shifted and put the pressure on the other way. Devin Booker is just as talented in doing that. And if we’re talking big picture, yeah, for this team to be as good as as they possibly could be, Book has to know when to hit that gear and when to flip that gear. And never ignore the other one. It’s one game. I think he’ll be fine. I think he’s a borderline top 10 player in the league. And I think on any given night, he could play like a top five player in the league. Guys like that got to play better than he did tonight. And I think he will. I like all these things I think that we’re saying can be true at at the same exact time. Can I can I be like Brian Gregory and try to get us in alignment here, please? Patrick in the chat says, “Rocket fans clowing Booker in their space LMAO.” Hey, hey, Houston, how about you worry about your Owen 2 dumpster fire right now and leave us to our own problems. All right. If you’re making fun of book, you’re missing the entire storyline that you should be looking at there. I think Sam man contextualized it all well. It’s early, not worried about it. Now, to Esco’s point, if it if it’s happening 30 games in, then that’s different. I think the other part of it as well is no Jaylen Green. That changes the psyche of someone that’s at the helm of a offense. If you don’t have your Robins, your Batman, now it’s more pressing that you lean more into one than you usually would. That’s a conversation for when we actually get to see Jaylen with the team. But I imagine it comes back up again at some at some point this season. Sure. And again, and part of my thinking is if you’re without Jaylen, wouldn’t that in I guess theory push you towards shooting the ball more because you know, hey, like I love Dylan Brooks. We’re going to talk about Dylan Brooks right here in a second, but like that that is right now your your second offensive weapon here. And the guy who’s leading the Suns in shot attempts for the season is is Dylan Brooks. If you are Devin Booker and you know like, hey, I don’t have Jaylen Green. And I don’t have Mark Williams starting, right? Oso, I love Oso, but as far as scoring goes, he’s not a massive threat on offense. He’s just a he’s a play finisher. And even then, he still has work to do, right? You don’t have another really big shot creator there when Jaylen Green is out. Doesn’t that mean that at least he should be pushing that pedal a little bit more than what we’ve been seeing? And again, I’m I’m open to hearing what you have to say and I don’t I don’t outright disagree with what either of you have to say, but just to me, that’s how I see it as if Green’s out the same way that when KD’s out, it’s like, man, we got Man, Books got to do more tonight. Books got to score more tonight. What What do we I don’t even I think we’ve lost the plot here because he scored 31 in game one. Like, we’re not talking about a guy who had five points in game one. No, let’s say it this way. two points in game one and six points uh in game two like uh the dead cap space has for for the Clippers. Like we’re talking about a guy that scored 31, had 18, and only playing what 28 minutes tonight. This is just a weird argument we’ve gotten into. I think we have completely lost the plot. All I’m saying is we can go back to that watch along, especially in that first half and we could talk about you multi both times you and I were both saying, “Oh man, Deon Booker’s deferring a little too much right now.” Again, I’ve said in that second quarter, he should have taken more shots. I’m just not freaking out. Our dude of the night presented by Hold on. One one more thing. What the chat code? I wish we kept Butler. That’s crazy. That’s the craziest thing we could say right now. So, he could have so he could have taken Jordan Goodwit’s minutes and in uh Sean with a good comment said, “I think the watch along is what’s doing this to y’all. We just talk for six hours straight at this point. Cats are assholes.” Okay. Let’s go ahead and get to our dude of the night presented by Hila River Resorts Casinos. You do you at Hila River Resorts Casinos. Visit playhila.com for more details. It is the other DB Dylan Brooks. Uh continuing to be a tone setter on defense. Uh literally clapping mid- possession and uh not afraid to take shots on offense. Team high 22 points. Oh yeah, it was the first game. Not 22 points D Brooks tonight. 20 points tonight. Uh what have you liked from from Dylan Brooks through two games now, Stephen? Uh, it’s the the mentality. I think that part is something that’s very important for this Suns team. You call it an enforcer, you call it a leader. Just I just call it a dog. And a dog is somebody that’s not just someone that does it for themselves, but they do it to not necessarily inspire because guys don’t need to be motivated when you’re playing to that level, but it just becomes contagious. Maybe he he finds opportunities to press buttons that other guys maybe haven’t yet. That then gets them to doing that and now his efforts multiply into four other players on the court that are with him. I think we see that in moments that first quarter. We saw it for sure. He was taking shots on offense. He’s making the rotations and playing with the activity and getting into many scuffles with players on the other team and intentional ways to raise the competition level of his teammates. and we saw the first half of the first quarter that we did because of that. Now, obviously, it’s hard to do that for a full 48 minutes against a team that’s built like the Clippers are, but that tone that they set was in part to Dylan Brooks doing what he does best as a tone setter. For me, it’s just that simple crazy smile when he when he’s obviously getting under somebody’s skin. Like again, we know that this team’s going to have nights like this, but Dylan Brooks is consistent in how he plays defense, how hard-nosed he is, and and again, yeah, would I like him not to shoot 17 shots? Sure. But he was five of 10 from deep. I mean, he went out there, he did he did his part. He did what what he could, but defense is is a five guy thing, right? and not just one guy trying really hard tonight. The rest of the defense wasn’t there, but he he did the things that should help you to win when everything else is clicking. Dylan Brooks is already uh one of my favorite Suns players that I’ve watched simply because I don’t think anybody’s made me like laugh and smile more in two game stretch than Dylan Brooks has. You know, through the crazy because yeah, there is some craziness with Dylan Brooks. the shot attempts, the the kind of disregard for like, oh, should you be doing that right now? But also, he just hits big shots. And in this game, it was early, right? Like the Suns needed him to hit shots early and he set the tone early. And then on the same side, defensively, he is just not afraid of anybody. Even if he has fouls that are already picked up, even if the other guy is hot, like Demard Roza was hot. Dylan Brooks didn’t care. Dylan Brooks is in his face. He’s getting in him. James Harden is hot. Dylan Brooks doesn’t care. He’s in him. But I think the underrated thing about all of this, Stephen, is that he is an extraordinarily smart defensive player. Knowing when to go and trap somebody on a double team, knowing when to switch, knowing when to give somebody space or get up in their space, literally defending somebody with just his chest out and not using his hands because he already has uh five personal fouls picked up. The dude is one of the smartest defensive basketball players I’ve ever seen. He’s a very good defender. Um, and it’s not just the the antics and it’s not just the being overly physical at times. He’s he understands what he’s doing and he understands the process of that. He’s not just out there doing stuff. He knows that if he gets under the skin of James Harden or Demar D Rozan or Kawhi Leonard early, it has a lingering effect over the course of the game and that effect might not hit to the fourth quarter. Maybe it just ends up turning into two missed shots for that guy that he typically will make because of the physicality and him being worried about talking with officials and that ultimately leads to the possession battle which usually is in favor for the Suns. Now they go and get a bucket on the other end. He understands what he’s doing and there’s a that’s a great skill. It’s not spoken on as if it’s one, but it’s certainly one for the people that know how to use it over the course of a game. But the other part for me and Roger brings up half of the point I’m bringing. Somebody’s got to take other shots. Somebody else got to be able to create shots in most of the lineups that they’re using when Devin Booker is on, but even when he’s off, Dylan’s not someone that’s shy about taking shots. That’s half of it. The other half of it, for me, too, is if you if you put a suppressor on Dylan Brooks’s shot attempts, how do you get to the makes for him? Because if he’s taking less, that’s going to play into his psyche. And you, the last thing you need for the Suns is another player that is not being aggressive or aggressive to the extent that you might hope for because they only have but so many shot creators. You don’t have really space for people to be passing up shots. Watched in the first half, something we haven’t talked about yet, Royce O’Neal passing up threes. Now, he made up for it later on in the game, but passing up shots that lead into turnovers, passing up shots that lead into bad shots, which are as good as a turnover because it springboards the opponents into transition. So, you can say what you want about the shot selection, but I’m not mad at Dylan taking shots because someone has to outside of Deon. Especially in this starting lineup when you want Ryan Dunn taking those shots, especially off the dribble. No. Do you want Oso Agaro being the guy to take those shots? That’s not in his bag. Tonight, Grayson wasn’t hitting anything. So, of course, it’s going to fall in there. And I get it. You want Book to take more. I understand that. But tonight, I would have rather him taken more of Grayson’s shots than uh than what Dylan did. So, yeah. Again, weird for sure. So, yeah, I I agree. More people got to take shots in that starting lineup. Uh let’s uh we’re a little overrun here. I got carried away with the book talk and everything. We’re going to talk about everybody else. We saw the rooks as well. We’re going to do it after this break. If you’re looking for some gear to make your brand stand apart from the crowd, well, I highly recommend Brandon Bills. 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And right now, you can uh get a payout early, especially if you’re watching the World Series. Like, you may have flipped from the from the Suns game tonight. Uh you can do that with Bet 365. Uh, when your team goes up five runs, you’re going to win instantly if you bet on that money line. So, breaking news from Bet365. News customers get 200 in bonus bets. When you lose, bet $5, win or lose. Sign up using promo code PHX 365. Deposit 10 and place a bet for five to get 200 in bonus bets. If your bet wins or loses, bonus bets can be used on spreads, totals, player props, futures, and whatever the moment. It’s never ordinary with bet 365. must be 21 and over, physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1800 NEX, text to 53342, or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Charles Peterson, for the first time, I agree with what you’re saying. He says, “Go Blue Jays.” I knew you was going to say that. We are an anti- Dodgers organization uh over here. Thank you all so much for spending your late Friday night with us here. Uh please hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. We will continue to be here pregame, postgame shows for all the Suns games this season, plus watch alongs. We’ll take a little break from watchalongs tomorrow. Give ourselves a little chance to breathe as the Suns take on the Nuggets. So, we’ve talked Devin Booker, we’ve talked to him Brooks off the bat, we talked about defense in this game as a whole. Stephen, where do you feel like we need to go to next as far as to tell the story about the Suns loss tonight? Um, I feel like this is the team that is still not full fully healthy. And that’s the big thing for me. Uh, Mark Williams was okay. Honestly, closer to good than he was okay in the first game. And today, it was a step back. It’s kind of a eb and flow as he’s working his way back into playing actual games. Obviously, the Jaylen Green of it all is the elephant in the room because he just literally hasn’t played in a single game for this team yet. It’s going to be hard to gauge and assess what they have and who they truly are with these things going on. And again, for a team that doesn’t have any margin for error, as we spoke to coming into the season, if those guys aren’t around in the capacity that they should be or at all in the case of Jaylen Green, it’s just not an accurate gauging and assessing of this team at this present moment. Obviously, they’re not going to be on the level of the Clippers, but I believe firmly that anybody can be beat any given night, but when you’re up against injury, adversity, and you’re going up against a talent deficit, that makes a lot of things a uphill battle that’s far too steep to climb sometimes. I think it’s be interesting to see if Mark Williams plays tomorrow. Back to back. He only played 14 minutes tonight, so you had a a short leash there, especially when you didn’t play any of your main guys in the fourth quarter. Uh, but you’re right, you don’t really know what you’re going to get out of him because of this manage restriction. You don’t have have Jaylen Green, so your rotations aren’t even normal right now. So, it’s it’s tough to to fully gauge what’s going on. But again, simply for me, this just came down to not not hard enough defense tonight, not trying hard enough on that defensive end. We saw in that second quarter, Royce O’Neal in particular fall asleep on multiple things. There was the the first play, I think, one of the first defensive plays he was out there. He had Derrick Jones Jr. No, it was it was Chris Dunn in the corner. Uh, and Royce was near the paint with his back to him, didn’t pay him any attention, and Dunn crashed the boards and got a bucket. And it’s those little things, those those lapses in defense, those small things that will take this team down because you don’t have much margin for error. And defensively, in particular, you don’t, especially when you’re going against a team like the Clippers who, you know, a Kawhi Leonard, you know, a James Harden can get going. So, if you’re letting the other guys get easy buckets because you’re not actually putting forth the the effort on defense or thinking through things well enough, you will not be able to win, especially against good teams. And we talked about this team is going to be a team that wins on the margins. So, let’s go ahead and uh take a look at the numbers and how they didn’t do that tonight. Presented by Desert Financial Credit Union, Arizona’s number one credit union, named by Forbes. Yeah. Uh you look at the Sun side of things and you’re seeing comprehensively just not enough. 23 assists on 37 field goals made. Not probably going to get it done unless you meet unless that means that Devin Booker or Jaylen Green did a lot of self-creating and scored in high volume off of their self-created uh opportunities. You want to see that that assist total a whole lot closer to that field goals made number. Uh similarly, that percentage of uh that percentage from the field is not gonna get it done on most nights for the Suns either, especially when you look at that the second to last number from the bottom. And you see that they also got outrebounded. Now, that’s one of the barometer stats to be watching for with the Suns all season long. If they’re winning the rebounding margin, they’re giving themselves a chance because that means that they’re getting up an adequate amount of shots on goal that they need to offset some of the scoring talent that other teams might have that surpasses what they have. These are the fine margins that we’re speaking to. And when you see that the Suns are behind in each and every one of these, that’s a situation where they just don’t have that margin for error. Yeah. You can’t lose the rebounding battle and lose the free throw battle by 11 and then wind up getting having fewer makes despite having what is that 14 more shots than your opponent. That’s a recipe for complete disaster for this team. You can’t you again you can’t lose certain categories significantly. The little things will will add up to become very big things for a Suns team like this. Yeah, it’s a tough team out rebound with Brook Lopez and and Zubots there. I will also say 55% from deep for the Los Angeles Clippers tonight. Some of that was on the Suns, but realistically they just got extraordinarily hot. I I like the fact that the Suns took more threes than them. I like the Suns took more shots. Uh the the rebounding and the threes is definitely a tough one. Other number for me that’s not included with those, I got two of them. 26 fast break points from the Los Angeles Clippers. So, I’ve detailed and will continue to detail the offensive rebounding, defensive transition process for the Suns. Giving up 26 fast break points is not even close to what’s in that process. It’s supposed to be the flip side of that. The Suns should be the ones with 26 and only giving up seven. And then the other part, they only lost this one by three, but 16 second chance opportun or 16 second chance points for the Clippers. They can’t be conceding that when they’re supposed to be rebounding to the extent that they desire. One more time though, 52 points in the paint for the Clippers. That was the other one I was looking for. Not going to get it done. Th This one’s crazy to me. Mhm. Suns and the Clippers both made 16 threes tonight. Clippers shot 29 of them. Suns shot 47 of them. That That’s problematic, right? Yeah. Absolutely 100%. There was a good play of the night and we’ll tell you exactly what our favorite play was and we’ll do it after our final break. Maybe you want to cleanse what just happened tonight and you want to see a good team play sports. We’ll go check out the ASU football game tomorrow and get your tickets on Game Time so you can see Houston play. Yeah. So you can see the six and one Houston Cougars visit, of course, the reigning defending Big 12 champions, Arizona State University. But the thing is, game time is good for whatever you want to get tickets for. Whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, live events like concerts, theater, standup, comedy, game time is the best place to go. My favorite thing is that they have the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. I’m so cheap that I’ve actually tried this and I cannot find cheaper tickets than Game Time. 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Well, I I would say that it would be the fourth quarter of us just talking about nonsense on the watch along, but technically that does not qualify as a play. So, I’m going to go with something that I also don’t think technically should qualify as a play, but it does in the box score. Come on, Malawatch getting his very first NBA point at the free throw line. He made one of two. We’ll just remember the first one uh because hopefully that is the first point in what will be an immensely fruitful career for the young man and we’ll look back on that in the future as something very special even though it was a pretty abysmal night. So that is my uh love to play from our friends at Arizona Lottery. Eric, I mean listen, love to see it from Kaman Malawatch. We’ll have more on what we saw from the rookies and maybe some more players we haven’t talked about tonight, but we are going to do it in overtime. If you’re watching on TV, the party always continues over at gophnx.com. Appreciate everybody who’s still hanging out with us. Come on, Malawatch. Uh, got in the game, I think a little late for my liking, but still glad that he could get out there and and get some real game, real NBA reps. Uh, I think it’s more about what we saw a little bit from Rashier Fleming and his nine minutes played specifically as far as passing goes. Stephen, he had a couple of of looks that looked pretty good. Yeah. Uh Rashir did a good job moving the ball. Uh one pass off the short roll, another one in a different situation, but putting a putting a pass where it needs to be, but with accuracy so that the person that’s shooting, all they have to do is just lace it up and let it fly. And I think that part is important, especially for the role that he’s likely going to be playing when his time does come, whether that’s this season, next year, or the year after. It was very good to see him kind of lean into that because that’s not something that we’ve really seen from him. Play for me of the game was in the first quarter the block that Dylan Brooks had uh on uh Zubach. I think Zubash was in the post against Igodaro. And where Dylan was wasn’t in the most advantageous spot for this angle that he took, but he takes like two or three steps and anticipates where Zubach is trying to go with the ball in the post, meets him before he jumps and gets into his hook and blocks a shot. And the Suns are on the break the other way. That’s a very special defensive play. That’s not one that many guys are making. And Dylan’s not like some A+ 99th percentile athlete. He’s an above average athlete, but to make that play, you have to be anticipatory. And we saw that on that play. Since we’re in overtime, can I say something controversial? Like overtime ever. That’s not the reason. That’s not the shoe in your mouth. Unless you don’t use choice words that you use when using regulation. I didn’t I didn’t say can I do something questionable. I said can I can I bring up something? Come on. Malawatch should have shot more in that fourth quarter. I mean, if the Phoenix Suns want to win, come on. Malawatch needs to be taking those shots. only having zero attempts in that fourth quarter in those minutes is just not fair, not right. And he needs to be the guy that’s taking those. I don’t want him passing. I don’t want him blocking shots. I want Come on Match taking all those shots. Now you’re speaking my language. Espo top 10 pick. When will the excuses stop for Come on. Five minutes, zero shots. I mean, heck, Jordan Goodwin had two shots in that time. Unacceptable. Come on. Malawatch should have taken those should have taken the two Rashier Fleming had. I mean, heck, he should have just gone out there when he wasn’t even checked in the game and started chucking. Now you’re spitting, brother. Now you’re spitting. Why is he even thinking about doing anything else out there on the court? That’s what I’m saying, man. When the offense is running through that guy, he should be taking those shots. I’ve been saying it 100%. Freckle, somebody got Why y’all doing that? Somebody banned Arrington from the chat. If only we kept Jared Butler instead of come on. What is wrong with you? Calvin says, “So you guys are going to not talk about the refs. Suns got screwed all night by ref.” No, we’re not talking about the refs were bad. We’re not talking about They were bad. That’s the whole conversation. But they were bad. Hold on. Yeah, the refs sucked. The refs did not suck. Uh 27 points worth. They sucked. They deserve that an hour into the show. They sucked. That’s it. Okay. And all they get is 15 seconds. That’s it. We’re not doing Sunville chill. Can we chill, bro? Oh my god. You know what? He was because he didn’t take those shots. Oh my god. H anyways. Uh do we want to talk about anybody else or we get out of here? It’s up to you guys. What else? Ryan Dunn. Ryan Dunn continues to rebound the ball. Hey Calvin. Calvin. First of all, if you’re going to use your, it’s with an e at the end of that. It’s not your. It’s your as in you are. not yours and something belongs to me. So take that bass out your voice and watch how you talking about me in the chat. Uh by the way sake or handshake. I’m just saying if you going to do that at least use proper grammar. You got you got all these other different apps you can use to get your grammar right. At least use that bro. You better. By the way I also love that somebody said our handshake was I hope was not that was nothing nothing smooth about that. I had no idea what he was doing there. Yeah. Like you had like we had a handshake before this and we didn’t. You’re like, “Come on, dude. Do the thing we practice.” I’m like, “We didn’t shoot.” I do want to Colin Gillespie. I did like his game. 13 points, five assists, five rebounds. He did he did the little things. I mean, again, nothing was saving this tonight and that kind of an effort. But there were small things that and then uh Nigel Hayes Davis going three for four, had three steals, two rebounds. like that’s something you can build on. That’s a confidence booster even though you’re in the fourth quarter of a crappy game. Maybe that carries over the next time he’s in uh in a late first quarter or or in a second quarter and all of a sudden you get a little bit of a snowball effect. Maybe that can help help his game. But overall, man, and the other thing other thing I enjoyed in this one, and I know the defense wasn’t to the level that it needed to be for it to have proven its worth because they didn’t contain the ball that well at the at points of attacking on the perimeter, but late first quarter and into the second quarter, the Suns got into their secondary players, the rotations, the the uh the firefighters, putting that group out there, and you’re looking at who’s being guarded by the Suns and the ways that they’re going about doing I like the depth of versatility that they have with this group as a whole, but especially with the second unit. They putting they’re putting uh Nick Richards on nine shooters and allowing for Nigel to guard the centers in those second groups. That’s something that they can use to their favor to force teams to turn the ball over or make them work later into the shot clock. Again, it didn’t prove it worth today, but in this learning this learning portion of the schedule, that’s something that’s going to benefit them going down the line. Can Can we pull up the chat about the refs and I’ve never hold uh it’s it’s it apostrophees, right? The refs. It’s beyond soft. It is beyond soft. And he’s talking about talking about being soft, but you want to cope with officiating being the reason the team loves. No, that’s what you think. Somebody’s scared and petrified to talk about the refs like they got a gun to your head. Bro, nobody’s ever said you’re not talking about the refs. You soft piece of [ __ ] That’s literally what you’re doing right now. What are you talking about, bro? Let’s go to conspiracy theory. We’re all uniting now. Let’s go. Let’s go to conspiracy theory. This is what we needed. You You want to say You want to say it’s soft? Let me say this. The league’s scripted. These refs are just following what they’re told. The Suns know what’s going on. The Clippers know what’s going on. And guess what? We’re part of the Illuminati. We know what’s going on, too. So we don’t have to go after the refs because we’ve seen the script. We know and that’s what’s been approved. So just Calvin because you are not part of the inner circle that knows this. That just makes you soft because you haven’t been invited in by the league. We know. We don’t need to rip on the refs because we know this has all been predetermined and nothing matters. I’ve never, bro, I’ve never in my life seen somebody so mad. liter like legit pissed off. People don’t talk about the refs. You should take more shots at the refs early and often. Take more shots at blaming the official officials more than the team that lost by 20 some odd points. Bro, what is you’ll never you’ll never see that. This is awesome. This is bro like Okay. And by the way, somebody else corrected him in the chat, too. My name is with a PH, not with a V. Well, clearly spelling is not Yeah, clearly spelling is not the roof. Put it the roofs. Bro, I love it. The fact that that there’s somebody who’s just sitting alone in the room right now who’s being like, “You guys aren’t talking about the refs enough. You assholes.” Why Why are we acting shy? Let’s Let’s Y about me talking about Deon Booker. This guy’s mad. We’re not talking about the refs. Let’s Let’s get this out of the way. Can we establish a rule on this show? Refs in every sport suck. Yeah. It’s an impossible job. Nobody gets it right. Yeah. And I mean it’s it’s a flawed concept anyways. It’s you might as well just call your own fouls because it’s just as bad, right? Oh no, we don’t need James Harden call. He already does. Also true. Also true. For sure. He at least a time multiplier to that though. This rocks. Thank you. You know what? Thank you, Calvin. Thank you, Calvin, for giving us a way to come and unite together. Freckle Mamba’s right. I want AI refs, right? Both because if you could trust anything, you could trust AI that just adds like a sixth or seventh, you know, finger on something when you ask it to create something. Oh my god, bro. I This is awesome. This is exactly what Hey, why don’t you both go fk yourselves? All right. Ferk off, man. Bro, fk the [Laughter] You notice how Calvin stopped commenting? I bet I I bet nobody’s ever closed out their YouTube appearing at Calvin being like they’re not freaking talking about the refs. We Oh, there we go. Now he’s there. It was intentional. You’re right, man. We are intentionally not talking about the refs. We’re big me over here, brother. We got Oh, hey, Adam. You can come out from behind the lockers now. I think we held enough water for you. It’s It’s not Adam. We all know the mob runs the NBA, right? Isn’t that what we’re worried about? Oh, isn’t that what we’re all worried about? You know, and I did say 67. You’re right. I’m going to be honest with you. Like, we have seen so many comments in our time here and working in media for years. And I’ve never I have never ever had somebody get so mad that we didn’t talk about the ref. Calvin, I told you it is intentional. It’s scripted out and we did we talked about the refs before he even said that though. Like bro, at least go rewatch the rest of the show before you get to that. Like what are we talking about right now? We said they were bad. We gave them 15 seconds cuz that’s all they deserved on this show where the Suns did not play good defense and had a bunch of other things going on. What are we talking about? Ryan was fouling the [ __ ] out of James Harden so many times. Like yeah, some of the calls were BS, but some of them were fouls, dude. Mark Williams literally jumped into brok You know what though? The refs got it totally wrong on that four-point play for Deon Booker. That wasn’t a foul, right? Dude just tripped over his teammate. Deon just happened to be in the way, right? Freaking refs. Oh, there’s no better way to end a postgame show than that. I’m surprised Eric didn’t mute our mics cuz we said we was done talking about refs about 40 minutes ago. Oh my god, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever You’re 100% right. Uh, dude, bro, I’ve never That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. If you enjoyed this, hit that freaking like button. Hit that subscribe button. Hit the join button as well. Please come back tomorrow. We’ll complain more about the freaking rules, dude. Tomorrow’s pregame show. 30 minutes on the refs. You’ll love it, Calvin. Be there. Uh yeah, we we we’ll get to the we’ll get to the rest before we get to the injury report for the teams playing and all of that tomorrow. You know what? Tomorrow we’re announcing the starting lineups of the rest game. That’s it. That’s going to be a big focus. Overunder on foul calls. Uh yeah, I mean, what are you guys wearing tonight for the refs? It’s the classic pinstripes. Calvin, you show up tomorrow. We’re talking refs. All right. Freaking roofs. We’re going to get on it. All right. I’m so I you know Steven is crazy. Chris, that’s going to be a thing, man. Oh my god. That’s the That’s the funniest thing ever, man. You know what? If the refs had called this game right, the Suns would have lost by 24. Why did we not get that to Should have lived should have lived with that today, honestly. Oh, man. If you want to follow the show, you can do so at phnx_s. If you want to yell at us for not talking about the refs, you can follow us on Twitter and on Instagram at that handle. We appreciate uh our guy behind the Mac making all the magic happen, the freckled mamba. Also holding it down in the chat. You can follow him at freckledmamba. Of course, you can follow Stephen. That’s Steven with a ph by the way at steenp3. You could you could tweet Stephen with a with a V if you want. I mean I bet I’m not going to answer know you’re talking about overtime. You just start saying fk. You can follow the show at freaking rat roof. F the roof. By the way, if you’re listening on audio, you’re like, why are they saying that? That is how Calvin spelled that. Uh, you can follow Espo at espalvin, that’s for you. I know you have a hard time spelling. And you can follow me at E R I K R U B Y. Uh, until next time, FK the roofs. [Music] [Applause] Like the mayor.

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0:00 – Intro
2:00 – Phoenix Suns Fall To The Los Angeles Clippers in LA
8:00 – The Devin Booker Of It All
39:35 – Dillon Brooks is YOUR Dude of the Night
57:20 – Our Play of the Night!

The Phoenix Suns dropped to 1-1 after the Los Angeles Clippers ran them out the gym in their first road test of the season. Did Devin Booker shoot enough for the Suns to have a chance? Did the Clippers and James Harden just get hot? Is this really what the team will look like all year? PHNX Suns breaks it all down on another postgame show! Follow us @PHNX_Suns, @ErikRuby, @StephenPG3, @Espo & @FreckledMamba!

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