Look at this phenomenal play. Ayton sets a high screen for Chris Paul, and as he rolls, now his man gets screened by Booker so we got the lob, and the Bucks could only stop this with a foul.
The Suns are virtually unstoppable in the pick and roll, so let me show you a few situations that paint the whole picture of how they won the first game. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Right here, you can clearly see that P.J. Tucker is CP3’s matchup. But Paul decides he wants to have the slower Lopez in front. So as he snatches back right here, goes directly towards the big man, and as he looks towards Kaminsky, faking the pass, Tucker has to stay there. So now that he’s forced the switch, Chris just goes to his spot, raises up and hits the shot.
The very next possession Paul does the exact same thing. Look at how he goes straight to Brook in transition, and eventually is able to maneuver his way into this matchup. So from there, you got the staredown, and his famous side step into the midrange jumper which rolls around and in.
In the second half, look at how both Deandre and CP are patient on this play up top. No rush on the pick, making sure that Ayton drags Tucker with him and Lopez stays out on an island against Paul. And yeah, you already know this goes in.
So stop me if you see the pattern here. But the pick and roll execution for the Suns and exploiting Brook Lopez was a big reason for their win in game 1.
And it wasn’t just Chris. Right here we see the same thing with Devin Booker running the show, and they’re so dangerous shooting the ball that going under the screen is not an option.
So this matchup was there for Phoenix all night. Booker is comfortable to get a shot off and bank it in.
There were situations when Milwaukee decided to help on the drive out of sheer desperation. But Devin made the correct play, the drive and kick finding the open man, and you can see all the space there is here for the 3 point shot and the splash.
And here are a few examples of that same scenario which benefited Ayton under the basket. You can see the smaller defender on him, the inside pass, and this is barbeque chicken as Shaq would say.
He had yet another monster game of 22 points and 19 rebounds shooting 80% from the field. And you can see the reason for that high shooting percentage in these clips of course.
And here’s something that I found interesting. The only reason he didn’t get the 20th rebound was because Chris Paul inadvertently stole it from him on the last possession of the game, not realizing the situation, and they all got a nice kick out of it as you can see.
But back to the main point of this video, Brook Lopez, a player who had a nice game in his own right, the Phoenix Suns literally made him unplayable, exploiting him time after time. So he had to go to the bench and the lineup that came back in the 4th quarter and cut into the lead did not include him.
So for game 2 coach Bud has a lot to think about and a lot of adjustments to be made, as the Suns offense is working flawlessly right now,
we see exactly how they even got here in the first place, and why they’ll be so hard to beat in the finals.
That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.