The Suns won a very terrible game.
With Booker not playing, the team shooting just 15.4 percent from three-point range and the Pelicans playing well, the Suns won in a way that barely made a mistake. While that's one of the reasons they're number one in the league, it's hard to believe the playoffs actually come out.
Is Paul's last quarter 19 points the point?
He did it once in G1, and it's not unusual to have this paving over there, and to do it again. The question is, why does paul, who seems to be a "single-core" leader, play nearly 40 minutes, still have such energy in the last quarter? The Pelicans have tried their best to consume Paul on the offensive end, even Jones has found a way to hold the ball to attack him, no Booker, Payne is not at a good level this season, the shooter is completely inaccurate, how did Paul survive to the end?
This is probably the best quality of the sun. Each turn, the Sun is "discovering" those comparative advantages, grasping them with 100% execution. The team is like a well-designed process that distributes balls strictly on priority, and the procedure goes something like this:
Is there a quick-attack misalignment? Yes, find and shoot.
No?
Is there a basket misalignment? Yes, give it to a player with a misplaced basket to take a shot.
No?
Does the opponent change defenses? Yes, give the inside line misalignment, attack the small one. Or use the big one to be taken out and give other points to attack the basket.
Don't change your guard?
Is Varan present? In, take the position to give Ayton a shot in mid-range, or Bridges to block the mid-range.
Varan is not present?
It shows that our interior line has a high advantage, giving Ayton or McGee a low position.
You can go through the footage and see if that's the case.
The first three quarters of the Sun used perverted discipline to strictly implement this procedure, so that on nights without Booker, Paul only needed to shoot 8 times in the first three quarters, and he left the ammunition until the fourth quarter, so that his small blow and big threat became a decisive weapon. The Pelicans decided to win in the fourth quarter with the intention of Varland on Nance, but Paul punished Nance Jr. with a lot of energy, which made the meaning of lower Varlands no, and the Pelicans lost the rebounding advantage.
The Suns' 48-minute game plan was too well done and executed too well. While the Suns strictly enforced the procedure, they only made 5 mistakes, and Paul himself had 14 assists and 0 turnovers. Such discipline and the degree of completion of execution are really incredible.
There are similarities on the defensive end.
From G1G2, it can be seen that pelicans have the ability to hit the sun's pain points, G2 three-point response is also very good, how to prevent pelicans, whether there is Booker is something that the sun needs to worry about. The G3 Pelicans played well, Ingram was good enough to solve many rounds, CJ free throws out of the problem, and other aspects of the good work. The Suns' defense did their best, and the best thing they did was not overreact to the PelicanS G2's three-point response, or they would draw the weak side to the strong side and make the Pelicans struggle to fight inside. For the sun, which is suffering from size, this trade-off is certainly necessary.
Winning the G3 is certainly not the same as lifting the crisis. Before Booker's return, every night was a challenge. The Pelicans showed the ability to compete with them, and the Sun didn't have too high a fault tolerance. But G3 still makes people's confidence in the No Booker Suns a lot. You know the Suns have the league's top "soft power," and no one can compete with them in the realm of not making mistakes — at the end of the game, the Suns handled every sideline ball, the bottom line, and almost no free throws in the fourth quarter before the winner was known — but only when they saw the Suns win in this way in the playoffs, they could remember the times more deeply and understand why they won so many games in the regular season.
Young teams, really should look at the sun more. In particular, the Timberwolves.