Watch the NBA | Indeed, the Suns can't beat the Clippers, and they can drop out of the championship if they don't strengthen themselves

Durant returned, and the Clippers and Suns stars played a more referential game.

This game is very "neat", which can be described as a benchmark case of turning theory into practice.

Both the Clippers and Suns have their respective ace lineups:

The Clippers' ace lineup is, Harden + Powell + George + Leonard + Zubac. This lineup can be described as both offensive and defensive, with hard solutions, organization, space, finishing, basket protection, confrontation, and average height. So far in the season, it is probably one of the most dominant 5-man group in the league, using 150 rounds so far, outscoring opponents by a terrifying 48.2 points per 100 rounds;

The lineup that the Suns have used the most this season is, Booker + Gordon + Allen + Durant + Nurkic. This lineup took 273 rounds and outscored the opponent by 25.6 points per 100 rounds. Very strong. However, in the case that the Big Three have been combined, in any case, theoretically the Suns' strongest five-man group should be in the Big Three, that is, the current starting lineup, Booker + Beal + Allen + Durant + Nurkic. Although it is still very vague whether Beal will be a man or not, the Suns lineup also has a 19.1 net point difference per 100 possessions in a small sample, which is also a dominant combination.

The Clippers and the Suns are going to meet, first of all, the collision of the ace lineups of the two sides. However, since the Clippers' ace lineup was used more in the closing stages, starting with Mann rather than Powell, the strongest pair of two teams would not have occurred in the opening game. Considering that Mann has recently warmed up and the strength of the Clippers' starting lineup has also risen, the dialogue between the starters can be roughly regarded as a competition for the core competitiveness of the two sides.

As a result, the Suns lost.

How did the Sun lose?

These rounds are crucial:

Nurkic picks up the ball and can't shoot in the face of Zubac.

It's no secret that Nurkic has a poor finish, and it's also the biggest offensive weakness of the Suns' starting lineup. But when Nurkic is surrounded by four of their top five offensive players (Durant, Booker, Beal, Gordon, Allen), his finishing weaknesses are arguably manageable to be avoided as much as possible.

This Clippers can expose the weakness of the Suns by appropriately raising Zubac's defense and pick-and-roll, with the efforts of the 45-degree swipe card to assist the defense and the leader of the defense, try to let the Suns block and stop the ball as much as possible, and at the same time avoid being passed directly through the defense.

The Clippers believe that the crossbow machine is not enough to threaten the down, and they also believe in the Suns' passing ability to block the ball and not be able to punish Zubac from behind as often. This is, of course, the relatively lacking part of the sun. But let's not forget that in the playoffs last year, the Suns beat Zubac by blocking and dismantling, and of course Paul didn't play these pick-and-rolls alone. With Zubac's mobility, it was unrealistic for him to completely hold down the Sun's blockers.

Therefore, the Suns and Clippers started to fight each other, and the ideal plot should be:

The Clippers have a variety of positions to attack the Sun. Because the Suns with three guards meet the Clippers with two forwards, at least one point is not the right size, and this point will be pushed flat. The Clippers can also block and dismantle against Nurkic, and they can also block and dismantle Harden and Leonard and let Leonard eat guard. How to play, depends on the state of the court and the Sun's defensive strategy;

The Suns can rely on speed to point Harden, or they can make Durant ignore the alignment, but none of these methods are as direct as Zubac's mobility. I don't care if you have 100 positions to punish me, I only need 1 position to punish you Zubac 100 times.

If the Suns can smash Zubac before being torn apart by the Clippers and make Lue the side of the move, then they have any hope of winning the game — although, that only unlocks the Clippers' second phase into the trial of Tis or Plumlee.

But the Suns didn't do it, they still played too easily. Nurkic was only one side of the game with 3 of 8 from the field, he only had two assists, and the Suns only had 17 assists as a team, which was the other side. The Suns didn't take advantage of Nurkic's cover and ball-handling advantage. They need to have some hand-to-hand play from the three-point line or elbow, and a sense of regrouping when one chance is not good. Once the ball is forced into the hands of the center, it will be Nurkic's finishing efficiency that ultimately determines the height of the Suns' offense, which is undoubtedly what the Clippers want to see.

The disadvantage at the strategic level has to be slightly compensated for at the tactical level. The Clippers can let go of the game because the Clippers have Harden as the court commander, and Zubac's weakness in handling the ball will be avoided as much as possible, so Lue doesn't need to design too complicated routines for the Clippers to run smoothly - as long as he uses the right people and there are people available.

Conversely, the Suns don't have a point guard, Vogel is completely rotten on this end, and it's not so easy to solve the problem by employing people. After all, the sun has little room for human adjustment.

It's not the first time that Vogel has taken Nurkic and put Durant at the No. 5 spot. Indeed, Durant plays center, with Booker, Gordon, Beal, and Allen around him, and the space is full, so you can play a game.

But this lineup can't be prevented is still second, the key is, when the Suns only have 6 good rotations, you still abandon the only one of the centers, leaving 1 forward and 4 guards to fight with others, how long can you last?

Just play like this in the middle of the third quarter, there is still one and a half quarters to go, and the core players will not rest later?

As a result, the competition entered the second stage of the competition. After the two sides rotated players, the gap widened further.

The Clippers and Suns' bench lineups have their own issues:

The Clippers' problem is called "lack of spatial continuity." There is no need to talk about this, the plot of the last loss to the Lakers is there. The young master is the all-powerful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in some games, but yesterday was the day that Lakers fans loved him the most;

The problem with the sun is called "lack of continuity of intensity". Although the Clippers have a few that can't be shot, the overall framework of the Clippers is defensive, and with a good rotation in such a framework, at least one end is guaranteed. Not to mention the Clippers' defensive puzzle pieces, as well as strong counter-attacking ability and a certain ability to handle the ball. But the overall framework of the Suns is not defensive, and a few puzzles with good defense on the sporadic can't save the overall situation, not to mention that the skill composition of these puzzles is extremely single.

In the worst-case scenario, the Suns pull down a serious center and play the No. 5 position in a puzzle that is neither offensive threat nor big. This kind of formation belongs to either side, and it doesn't depend on it. But in the context of Vogel's abandonment of Nurkic, this kind of plot is bound to arise as long as the other starters dare to rest.

As a result, the debuff is stacked, and the sun is quickly snowballed by the Clippers.

The current situation of the sun should be summarized at several levels:

On the first level, Beal isn't strong enough, at least he's not strong enough this season. What the giant team is most afraid of is the mediocrity of the giants and the inability to make up for the deep losses. Booker was not as strong as he expected after his form dropped;

On the second level, the functions of the Big Three overlap severely. There isn't an insider, there's not a point guard, and two are guards;

On the third layer, there are 4 defenders in the core 6 main forces, and they can only make up a reasonable lineup. This is not a problem with the Suns' poor bench, normally speaking, a playoff team has 6 high-level rotations, and a few more benches that support time, and they can play. The key is that the coverage of the Sun's 6 main forces is too narrow in terms of position and functionality, and there are too many downshifts with a mixed lineup;

On the fourth floor, Vogel is a bit at a loss in a team that has no resources to defend. Of course, no coach can completely solve the problem of the Suns.

If there is no reinforcement, the Suns can officially withdraw from the topic of championship contention.