Analyzing the playoff seriesWanted to give my thoughts on the playoff series with the Sacramento Kings and a bit of insight into what I wanted to do and what actually happened. Was a great series and look forward to many more with the Kings GM.
Game 1
Phoenix Suns 85 Sacramento Kings 105
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Michael Porter 39
Assists: Jaylen Adams 8
Rebounds: Bol Bol 11
Game 1 of our first round match up with the 1 seed, Sacramento Kings ended in dominant fashion for the defending champs. Thybulle was able to clamp Tatum successfully and the rest of our offense simply fell apart at the sight of it. It wasn't a game I expected to steal, but I adjusted the lineup we would run and how we would go at the Kings. Previously; Derrick White had started alongside Tatum in our back court, but I made the decision to give him the bench with how well Caruso played towards the end of the year and to give Tatum more to do with the ball.
It was here the gears began to move for a possible defense of our homecourt seeing as the road games would probably all end up here. The home crowd makes a world of difference.
Game 2
Phoenix Suns 83 Sacramento Kings 92
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Michael Porter 45
Assists: Jaylen Adams 9
Rebounds: Bol Bol 11
Game 2 came and I adjusted some of the defensive match ups here, which may have worked a bit better as we held the Kings to below 100 points. Thats a win in my eyes here, but unfortunately, Tatum is again Unable to score against Thybulle. That switched my focus to trying to do something that got another player involved more and let Tatum back off and with a homestand coming up; the perfect man as in place. Alex Caruso spent a large portion of the year impressing me and even almost being inserted as a starter over Shaquille Harrison before the trade.
I relied on Caruso heavily to lead us in Game 3 and I was rewarded.
Game 3
Sacramento Kings 99 Phoenix Suns 106
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Alex Caruso 38
Assists: Jaylen Adams 11
Rebounds: Grant Williams 11
What can you even say about this game? As close as you could get all season to us almost blowing home court in the playoffs, but somehow we squeak it out behind Caruso's 38. I saw that Thybulle had rendered Tatum all but useless unless he was somehow drawing fouls, so I wanted to open up the perimeter game and Caruso of course excels in that position. Caruso goes 12-20 and after replacing Porter with Brodziansky, I headed into game 4 a bit more confident despite Sacramento being the better team and having our home crowd really be our 6th man.
Game 4
Sacramento Kings 109 Phoenix Suns 117
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Michael Porter 43
Assists: Jaylen Adams 11
Rebounds: Dedric Lawson 9
Assumed that Sacramento took Thybulle off Tatum after we utilized Caruso much better in Game 3, so I assumed we would have something to surprise him with after replacing the offensive output of Caruso with Tatum again and that hunch would prove correct. With nop Thybulle shutting him down; Tatum went 9-20 and 35 points which was enough to squeak out another win at home, bringing the series at 2-2 and having me looking to make sure this series 3-2 for us after Game 5.
Game 5
Phoenix Suns 89 Sacramento Kings 103
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Michael Porter 45
Assists: Jaylen Adams 9
Rebounds: Michael Porter 11
Wasn't so good again as I'm assuming Tatum got locked up once again by a defensive match up from Thybulle. Horrible shooting performance from us that puts us down 3-2 now and potentially facing elimination in Game 6 at home. I wanted to count on home court, but knew I'd have to maybe abandon the perimeter offensive approach if we went to 6 and maybe even 7. I was actually relieved to be down 3-2 as it really put less pressure on us to capitalize and really put it on the Kings to end us. Or maybe that was just me trying to cope with the fact we were going to lose in 6.
Game 6
Sacramento Kings 87 Phoenix Suns 98
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Michael Porter 46
Assists: Jaylen Adams 11
Rebounds: Dedric Lawson 14
Yeah something about the home court in this game makes me feel really really safe. I made some defensive adjustments that forced us to gather inside and that seems to work as the Kings hate shooting threes and that works for me. Assuming Tatum got taken off again on the no score list by Thybulle and probably because the Kings wanted to stop another Caruso type burst which propelled us to a win in game 3. Really happy with how we played this game, especially holding the defending champs below 90. 3-3 and I feel we have a shot at winning the Game 7 with this out of the box idea I have.
Game 7
Phoenix Suns 92 Sacramento Kings 113
Leaders in Key Categories:
Points: Micheal Porter 38
Assists: Jaylen Adams 11
Rebounds: Michael Porter 9
The Kings win and while that is a bitter pill to swallow for us as a team; I am really looking forward to both the off season and making this team that much better. I tried out a plan that included having Tatum playing 36 minutes off the bench in order to really avoid the Thybulle defensive minutes, but I don't think it mattered as our entire team got shut down by the Kings. The champs are defending that crown for a reason, but I think we have a shot at coming back down the line in the Pacific to challenge their hegemony.
2020, 2023, 2027