Suns

For a team that prides itself on the numerous strides they've made on the defensive end of the court this season, the Luka Dallas Mavericks' defense was ...

“For us, we got a lot of good looks at the three that we just didn’t make. “I think we just got to attack more paint,” he said. We came back and made the game close.” “But we definitely put ourselves in a hole the first couple of quarters.” Kleber took that a step farther, saying: “We didn’t come out with the right energy. “We played with a lot more tenacity and fight that fourth quarter. And they have bigs rotating and we can attack more of the paint.” I think we just got to be more together.” But we just got to figure it out.” “Maybe we were still stuck on the Utah Jazz series where different looks came out.” “We just couldn’t get over the hump. “We held the No. 1 offensive team the last series (against the Utah Jazz) a couple of times under 100 points,” center Maxi Kleber said.

Dallas Mavericks phenom Luka Doncic had to be playing with some discomfort for most of Monday's series opener against the Phoenix Suns.

45/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) dunks the ball past Phoenix Suns forward Jae Crowder (99) during the fourth quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 43/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) reacts after a call went against the Mavericks during the fourth quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 42/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) blocks a shot by Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul (3) during the fourth quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 41/48Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) is fouled by Dallas Mavericks forward Reggie Bullock (25) in front of the Mavericks bench during the fourth quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 35/48Dallas Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith (10) dunks the ball past Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges (25) during the third quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 32/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic reacts after a foul call went against the Mavericks during the third quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 27/48Dallas Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith (10) is defended by Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) during the second quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 20/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic falls into the first row of the corwd during the first quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) While attempting a 3-point shot with less than nine minutes to go in the second quarter, Suns forward Jae Crowder accidentally caught Doncic where the sun don’t shine. 19/48Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) is fouled by Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson (13) during the first quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 18/48Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) is defended by Phoenix Suns forward Cameron Johnson (23) during the first quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) 13/48Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson (13) has his shot blocked by Phoenix Suns guard Landry Shamet (14) during the second quarter in Game 1 of an NBA second round playoff series on Monday, May 2, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

PHOENIX (AP) — Deandre Ayton scored 25 points, Devin Booker added 23 and the top-seeded Phoenix Suns rolled to a 121-114 win over the Dallas Mavericks on ...

In addition to fines and possible legal fees, a suspension could lead to cancellation or nonrenewal of car insu Not to be outdone, CBC confirmed that ano And as would be expected, he was missed. The Suns never trailed, jumping to a 9-0 lead in the opening minutes and rarely let off the gas. Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 45 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Kleber finished with 19 points.

Dallas, on the other hand, got 45 points from Luka Dončić, but not much from everyone else. Every Suns starter scored in double figures, compared to only three ...

At the same time, Dallas seemed to bother Phoenix a bit by playing super small—taking Kleber off the floor and going with Luka, Brunson, Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock, and Dorian Finney-Smith. Dončić was able to find some driving lanes, while Ayton curiously couldn’t take advantage late as well as he did earlier in the night. After a first round matchup that was draining both emotionally and physically, as well as the injury scare with Booker, every minute could end up counting for the Suns. (The Suns had a 140.8 offensive rating in Kleber’s 24 minutes.) Part of this is by design—Luka is always going to be a high usage player, and he’s young enough to carry such a load for Dallas. But it’s a style that often becomes more difficult as the playoffs endure. And how much of that was Phoenix taking its foot off the gas? CP3 will turn 37 during this series, and while he’s still more than capable of winning as either a facilitator or scorer, Phoenix needs to make sure he’s fresh for all four rounds. (He finished with 23 points, anyway.) Cam Payne hit four of his eight attempts after shooting only 29.5% against the Pels. And Jae Crowder and Cam Johnson combined to hit six threes. Phoenix coach Monty Williams said after the game he wasn’t thinking about Round 1 when he gave Paul an extended break in the second, but in general he likes to get Paul extra rest when he can. The big lead the Suns built in the first half—going up by as much as 14 in the second quarter—gave Williams the luxury to ride other units. On the flip side, Luka played 44 minutes and looked a little worse for the wear toward the latter half of the fourth quarter. I just told coach I ain’t play much in the second quarter,” Paul said after the game. Paul, who scored 33 in the Round 1 clincher, played only 29 minutes in the victory, an indicator of how balanced his Phoenix team is. The Suns took Game 1 against the Mavs in their second-round series with a 121–114 win.

Despite a big night from Luka Doncic, Phoenix uses its guard depth and the play of center Deandre Ayton to build a 1-0 lead in the West semifinals.

Of course, Phoenix coach Monty Williams wasn’t happy with Doncic hitting the Suns for 45 points. Doncic still managed to fire up a game-high 11 3-point attempts as the Mavericks attempted 39 of them overall. Kidd is correct, considering the other Mavericks starters not named “Doncic” combined to score just 39 points. For the most part, Phoenix excelled at staying in front of Doncic and the rest of Dallas’ playmakers. It’s clear Phoenix understands just how easily Doncic can make a defense start scrambling, and the Suns want no parts of that. Doncic managed to rack up 14 points in the first frame. Whenever Doncic and Maxi Kleber were both in the game, the Suns switched everything to keep the point guard from finding the power forward for open looks. Phoenix hardly ever ran extra defenders at Doncic to make him give up the ball. Kleber still hit 5 of 6 from deep in the first half for 16 points. Doncic became the youngest player since Kobe Bryant in 2001 to pour in 45 points with at least 10 rebounds in a playoff contest. He started off the night sizzling, hitting four of his first six shots. Cameron Johnson chipped in a playoff career-high 17 points, while veteran point guard Chris Paul simply blessed us with the best field goal percentage by a guard over any two-game playoff span (21-of-27 shooting over his last two games) in scoring his 19 points on 7 of 13 from the floor.

The Suns dominated the Dallas Mavericks in a wire-to-wire beat down Monday night to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals. Phoenix led by as many ...

“It was unacceptable the way we closed it out … I know for a fact, we’re not closing another game like that again. We’re going to be a lot more locked in like we just came off an L.” The Suns entered the fourth quarter with a 17-point lead and left it up just 7. The Suns can’t afford to finish like this in closer games moving forward. Luka Doncic was 5/5 in the quarter. Sometimes a hard fought, close loss can feel like a win.

After a brief hiatus, the Phoenix Suns that bulldozed through the regular-season schedule made an appearance on Monday night.

The Mavericks stayed in the game for a while thanks to Doncic and Kleber, who hit his first four 3-pointers. Fitzgerald is a part-owner of the franchise. Mavericks: Doncic scored 14 points in the first quarter on 5 of 9 shooting. Phoenix extended its lead to 18-6 midway through the first quarter before a discombobulated Dallas called timeout. ... Kleber hit 5 of 6 3-pointers in the first half and had 16 points before the break. "I liked the fact that we weren’t settling for 3s tonight," Suns coach Monty Williams said. Paul added 19 points and Cam Johnson had 17 off the bench. The 6-foot-11 center shot 12 of 20 from the field. Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 45 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. "I thought Maxi and Luka in that first half kept us afloat," Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. We played well most of the game. They shot 50.5% from the field, won the rebounding edge 51-36 and beat the Mavericks for the 10th straight time, counting regular season games.

If one play could illustrate just how insurmountable the matchup of the Phoenix Suns feels for these Dallas Mavericks, it had to be this one early in the ...

In the example below, Doncic gives the ball up quickly as the Suns start a double team, but the ball just pings right back to him without any Mavericks role player getting into the paint. In the second, the Mavericks try to clear out with Doncic posting up Paul, but Dallas has three players bunched up in the weakside corner. First, the Mavericks and Doncic can watch the film and see if the opportunities missed above can be exploited. Doncic manipulates the space and races past Ayton for an easy dunk, as the Suns have no rim protectors with Ayton blow by at the three point line. It was only one game, but it showed why the Suns were so heavily favored. When the Suns weren’t swallowing up the Mavericks, the Mavericks themselves shot themselves in the foot with some poor spacing. The final adjustment was clear in the fourth quarter: more small ball. So much of the Dallas offense was Doncic trying to do it all as the Suns were able to pinch and help off the Mavericks role players but without giving Doncic clear passing outlets. Even still, Doncic will probably look back at the film and feel like he missed some open looks, like this one to Jalen Brunson in the first quarter. Doncic ends up with the ball right back to where he was when he gave it up. The biggest is that Dallas needs to figure out a way to get the Suns into multiple rotations per possession, much like they did against the Jazz. The Mavericks work is cut out for them, since they can’t matchup hunt the Suns like they did the Jazz. Luka Doncic was incredible, but you have to imagine Phoenix will look at the box score and feel OK about Doncic shooting 30 times, despite scoring 45 points, and only having eight assists. The Mavericks offense struggled early, then did the best it could against an elite Suns defense.

Your weekly Inside the Suns analysis straight from the BSotS community who live and breathe the team.

Rod: They can’t best the Suns with a small ball lineup as they did with the Jazz but I don’t doubt them trying it. But their primary goal initially is probably to do everything they can to stop CP3. He’s the one who is pretty healthy, and he’s the guy that runs this whole team. Rod: On offense, the Suns definitely need to feed Deandre Ayton the ball and attack the basket. Alex S: Mavs are going to try to throw everything at Booker and make the “others” beat them. On defense, the Suns are going to have to play great perimeter D. Dallas leads everybody in three-point attempts (41.6 per game) and hits a very respectable 37.1% from downtown. he does like the playoffs, and seems to usually turn it on a bit more in them. With the Pels, the Suns seemed to think they could “flip the switch” and get wins when ever they wanted. GuarGuar: I think Dallas is really going to try and get us in foul trouble. The other guys are going to need to step up in the early games of the series against the Mavs. And that’s a tall ask given that Mikal is going to have all he can handle on the defensive side with Luka. I really hope Ayton steps up. Sun-Arc: Lots to unpack with this next series- but if I have to focus on one area it would be: Energy. The Suns won the most games in the regular season because they outworked everyone else in 78% of their games. My hope is Book looks to be 80%+ by game 1 and can take on more workload as the series progresses. The Suns are off to a 1-0 series lead following a solid performance in game one by their starters and key bench players.

Dallas looked helpless for most of the series opener in Phoenix, and then the team went on a massive run.

"I thought Do was great at the 5," Kidd said. "I liked the fact that we were not settling for the 3s tonight," Phoenix coach Monty Williams said. "We sort of looked like ourselves as far as sharing the ball and guys making shots," Paul said. "Anytime a guy has 45, you look at that number and … you don't like it," Williams said. When the Suns look their best, they are putting opposing teams in rotation, moving the ball from side to side and creating easy looks all over the court. Soon thereafter on Monday, the Suns had a 9-0 lead, and then it was 20-6, a barrage of ball movement and transition points.

The Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns face off on Wednesday in Phoenix in Game 2 of their NBA Playoffs series.

Warriors vs. Mavs vs. Celtics vs. Warriors vs. Mavs vs. Celtics vs. - 76ers vs. - 76ers vs. Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. NBA Finals MVP NBA Championship Jason Radowitz writes: "What was most obvious in the first game is Dallas' inability to defend inside the arc.