How the Suns defense slowed down Steph Curry and the Warriors
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- čas přidán 1. 12. 2021
- The Phoenix Suns shut down Stephen Curry and the Warriors offense with a defensive clinic the other night, thanks to a great scheme from coach Monty Williams, and high IQ defense from Mikal Bridges, Chris Paul, De'Andre Ayton and the rest of the Suns. This video is a detailed film breakdown of their strategy, and some of Golden State's offensive counters throughout a great coaching matchup.
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#ThinkingBasketball - Sport
Dude your videos are so good. No superficial hot takes for clicks, just data and what that data implies. Btw, I love your podcast.
Basketball mainly, but he has good data too!
Best data supported basketball analytics in the game by far, and his personally created metrics are sometimes more useful than traditional stats
Simply basketball information at it’s purest.
I heard someone comment on another video that there were too many numbers in Bens videos. I admit it was a lot at first. But he even made videos to explain the numbers he uses and why. The end result is more in depth and comprehensive analysis than anywhere else on the internet
but ANaLyTiCs lol
"Curry stopper!"
Next Game: 6 for 11 from three
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
so much for that theory GSW just whipped they're ass tonight lmao
As a lifelong Suns fan who has grown up in Phoenix the last two years have been fun and weird to watch a Suns team who is so consistently good on defense. During the KJ/Chambers era, KJ/Barkley era, Stoudemire/Nash era, we were never really good on defense. We weren't always terrible but we were never known for being defensive minded and it's good to see the Suns finally play consistently great team defense.
i think defense is the biggest difference . and age is the second . our core is extremely young . and the chemistry couldn't be better. right now i think DA is a mile away from his ceiling offensively. and his play will decide where this team ultimately goes .
Actually the KJ/Chambers teams, although they never had notable defensive talent, always performed well on defence. The KJ/Barkley and 7SOL Suns were less defensive because (at the very least in the case of 7SOL) they tended to sacrifice defence for offensive talent.
@@TheRelativeUnknown Actually contrary to popular opinion, they weren't too bad under D'Antoni and for a stretch in '06 when they were forced to run a true C because of Amare's injury, they were actually pretty good on defence.
The team actually was the worst on defence after Porter and subsequently Gentry replaced D'Antoni in '09; it didn't help that they lost Marion and Bell before Gentry/Porter arrived either.
@@TheRelativeUnknown I'm not absolutely sure about this to be honest with you. Performance wise the Suns were definitely better (at least Regular Season speaking) when they were with D'Antoni vs Gentry. They gave up more raw points with D'Antoni because of their breakneck pace also they had the defensive personnel to be a quality defensive team (as evidenced by their results without Stoudemire, as stated before, which forced them to play more traditional lineups), but their DRtg was around average.
In the playoffs I think they did get worse in general as their defensive style did not translate as well (they overall did not do a good job at depressing the ORtgs of Dallas or SA, although they held SA below their Regular Season ORtg in the 07 WCF). However, the Gentry Suns in their two runs in '08 and '10 slightly depressed SA in the 2008 First Round but they got absolutely demolished defensively vs LA in the '10 WCF. It's a tough call but I think the units with D'Antoni definitely had more defensive talent.
Exactly 💯. Suns haven't been this good since the 90s. But today's suns got better defense and finally a big guy
Phoenix put on a defensive clinic during this game. Good reads and adjustments while generating points off Warrior misses. Great video
@@moatcozza lmao
Defensive clinic more like wrestling match. How many times I saw curry get body checked and thrown to the ground off ball with no calls was disgusting.
might be tough tho once klay is back, the spacing is going to be even better...
@@bballerjrod4 thats just the nature of the game. Most officials are watching the ball most of the time. But it also lets curry get away with some very physical screens. So its a 2 way street
Also curry had an off off night. There were many shots that he usually makes
Great analysis!
It's true that Curry had a terrible night.
But it's a fact that Suns defense put him out of rhythm, which is crucial for him.
He's not a volume shooter but a rhythm one. Once Curry heats up, you're done: he'll torch you!
Good take
This reminds of the way the Spurs defended him in 2016 forcing him into 4-18 shooting but Curry almost always explodes in the next matchup. Steve Kerr has to take Looney out the dude was a massive liability on offense.
@@kingjaydex7464 that's what happens when you have bigs that are just...big. no skill. dude kinda athletic but cannot score by himself if his life depended on it. ayton spends more energy switching and sliding on help defense than defending looney 1 on 1.
@edddynamite Ummmmmmmmmm, it is true to some degree, but Steph 4/22 shooting? He was missing looks he normally hits, he is human and will have his off nights but that was just not off, he was way off, which does not happen too often. We still almost won up until the last minute of the game it was right there........., also klay and Wiseman back.............its a wrap. Even if klay is at 60%! Relying on Crowder and Cam to hit 3s like for the suns, esp with Iggy back, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO way!
Curry a volume shooter? he is an EVERYTHING shooter, he is pure bliss when the ball leaves his hands.
@@michaelpfister2779 This reads like the entire Warriors subreddit...
Your videos have single handedly made me truly enjoy basketball. I liked it before, but now I find myself watching videos every single day.
This is awesome to hear -- thanks for sharing!
What struck me the most about the Suns is the number of very mobile and long defenders - which bothers three point shooters. They all know how to close out on a three point attempt without giving up a wide open driving lane. The way they played the passing lanes was also impressive. It also just wasn't Steph's night. He was off rhythm the entire game, partly because of the Suns scheme..
It’s crazy how underrated the suns are, how can a team that just went to finals damn near won the finals, comeback the next season and win 17 STRAIGHT and not be talked about.
It shouldn’t have taken this long for them to be recognized as contenders.
Same thing goes for the bucks nobody ain’t talking about them either
Totally agree, Jokic has a similar thing with MVP and even DPOY
Same thing with the Arizona Cardinals. They have the best record in the NFL but nobody gives them credit. Anytime the Cardinals win people talk about why the other team loss instead of what the Cardinals did to win.
yessir suns lost 4 straight games in the finals to the bucks
Because bandwaggoning casual fanboys want to hear about the Lakers, GSW and Nets, so we real fans struggle to hear about the real contenders like Suns, Bucks and Heat
@@WhoAreYou905 What does that have to do with this season?
Im a Warrior fan and I just love how you analyzed carefully the game and it will make me look some more pointers come this rematch of them.
Good analysis as per usual, looking forward to see their rematch on the 4th this weekend
That rematch is biased, the Suns play pistons the night before, showing NBA conspirancy to benefit GSW. I hope Monty plays the bench as a protest
Probably won't be the same, the Suns will be on the second game from a back to back while GS would have 3 days rest. And Steph will probably want to show that it was a one time bad game.
It's tomorrow on the 3rd but same here can't wait. I think booker will be out with injury so that'll be interesting.
Suns will mostly have an off night due to me having a bad pre-game outfit like Curry. lol
@@vcalv9354 Booker out and the Suns on the second night of a back to back.. and their second back to back in a week. Warriors last game was against the Suns and their next game is tomorrow and again, against the Suns
Mikals wingspan is HUGE ! part of what helps his defense so much
also Thinking Basketball with another W video , keep up the good work gg
lots of dumb players have long arms and never make the nba or do well on stars maybe foul or aren't in the correct spots while guys run off ball making their wingspan useless cause of court awareness and footing...its iq that matters...
Watched this now after this rematch, everything must settle down cause it was a beatdown...
My God, what an amazing game. The execution of both teams is just something else. Rarely do we get to see top level offense and top level defense executed by both teams in December. I can’t wait for these guys to match up in the playoffs! Gonna be lit!
How do you know they'll meet in the play offs? Jazz, Nuggets, Lakers, even Clippers could all be healthy by that time.
Thank you for talking about what Golden State did to counter it, this was great offensive and defensive analysis
From 2:22-2:26 Poole traveled his ass off.
I'm so happy about the upped frequency of your videos!
Channels like yours actually brought me back to watching basketball again. Learned so much and the games are much more interesting.
Stellar analysis! I love your channel. As a lifelong Suns fan, it's great to see 'em be so tough on the defensive end. We've always had run and gun squads that didn't shine on the defensive end. It cost us some rings. Let's take one back this year! GO SUNS!
I enjoyed your video. Great job. The Warriors are really tough to defend. The team has to be consistently good in communicating during defense and Phoenix did that remarkably.
Monty Williams 2.0 is an excellent coach. He lost his wife, grieved and came back to coach and has turned the Suns into one of the best two way teams in the league. Bravo. He deserves it after all he has been through.
Monty is a great coach, but you’re weird as hell for trying to attribute it to the death of his wife
@@TimJorgensen850 Here comes one of the perpetually outraged reply guys. Nowhere did I "attribute his coaching excellence to the death of his wife." You have comprehension issues. Read the last line of my original comment: "He deserves it after all he has been through," which he does. He spoke on the Woj Pod about how rewarding his coaching experience had been after suffering the tragedy that he did.
I'm sure Monty himself would take the comment as a compliment that it was meant to be, but you gotta butt in and say something stupid.
Suns defense was stellar, But curry had an off night he was airballing wide open shots
like draymond said he said it felt good when the ball left his hand but it was an airball.
we shall see what happens in san fransico. two best teams in the league going at it again.
Amazing detail while keeping it nice and simple. 10/10. Deserves more attention.
I commented on a post for more content and you delivered. Some of the best basketball analysis right here!
This aged beautifully. Just like I knew it would
The Rockets first started doing this in the the 2017-18 playoffs and they ended up being up 3-2 until Chris paul got hurt in game 5. The Rockets length really bothered the warriors with guys like Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, and Luc Mbah a Mout for example. stud defenders with Paul and PJ Tucker too. I wanna say the Suns did it better but its hard to justify that when rockets had to deal with KD and Healthy Klay
Scheme wise its sound. But when you give Steph other guys who can create shots with the ball (KD, Healthy Klay) then you pick your poison when you try clamp down on Steph. If KD starts doing his thing and Mt Klay erupts for a quarter and the game gets out of hand, its difficult to come out of that on top.
Ehhh the Rockets weren’t all that long. I do remember that when the Thunder who’s length gave them some issues. Rockets were able to switch everything 1-5.
Well the 2017-18 was 2-1 when the warriors had they death lineup with iggy he didn’t play for the rest of the series and they lost back to back close games 🤷♂️
@@AG30 dont compare Iggy to Chris Paul and especially when they already had KD Steph and Klay
It’s only one game
This is next level.
Awesome video man. Really shows how good these two teams are.
All the little things and one percenters that the two most dominant teams in the league are doing to be successful.
No fillers. No BS. Pure analysis, yet entertaining. Subscribed.
up until now I was pretty convinced about the warriors making it to the finals. Obviously if they meet the suns in the WCF they will have Klay back and they will have 7 games to figure it out but it'll be one hell of a series
Why? They lost a road game which theyre supposed to lose. Wait till friday man, just wait.
@@marcosjuarez1490 I will have a bad hair day so my Suns will probably give that to ya!! lol
Finals talk in early December is really funny stuff. Sure there are 2 elite teams in the West right now but a lot can happen by trade deadline and some teams will start showing synergy and stuff in a longer stretch of repetitions. Also injuries can make/break playoffs match ups. I like the Suns against some teams but against others I'm not so sure of especially when they are healthy.
The Warriors did make the finals, but the Suns did not make the finals.
It says something about the warriors and curry when him having a bad game is so much of a bigger deal than him having a fantastic game.
Your videos are so watchable because your not biased at all. You just call it like it is. It is so refreshing to see an NBA CZcams channel talk hoops and the strategy that brought a team to a W or L. For all your knowledge I say thanks and I can't wait till the next one. Peace
good rotations are truly art to watch, great video
I'm a warriors fan but I was so shocked at how Phoenix stifled Golden State's offense like that. Some analysts chalked it up to Curry having an off night but it was definitely more than that. Had to look up a solid analysis and this definitely did not disappoint.
He just had an off night. Missing 12 wide open looks isn’t great suns defense that’s just a bad night. Had he mad half of those they woulda lost.
Turned out to be true, it was a off night, he torched the next game and then went on to get another ring.
Imagine thinkin, "modern nba is just jackin up 3's"
yes! I've been waiting for someone to analyse this game
Always look forward to these
Monty Williams quickly becoming one of my favorite coaches
Switching guards is also energing saving instead of chasing. You save energy, you get more chances winning the 4th quarter.
outstanding analysis!! here for all of it!
I love these small break downs.
You BETTER do a break down on how Warriors defeated the Suns Yesterday.
There's always things that you breakdown that I haven't notice, amazing analysis.
Amazing analysis Sir!
Great video and break down of the defense.
well this didn’t go as planned
We should see if Mikal "Jail" Bridges can repeat this amazing feat this coming Friday.
They'll be coming out of a back to back so, I think it won't be the case. Very physically demanding to defend like this. Hope it's a great one nonetheless!
@@eleintblood nah no excuses, curry finna torch them friday
@@chicagorainydayz3611 like how curry torched the chance for GS this game?
@@azhule4041 see u tmr
My guy how many games has Curry won for them. Dang he can have a bad game but you given Mickal all kind of excuses because he had a back to back against Detroit a 4-18 team.
I have not made any CZcams comments till now. Great video. I truly love basketball and the chess game it is and only caught 1/4 of what happened in these clips. Great job man. Hope you make it big.
Wow. This was nice. Thanks!
Screaming Mikal Jail for 8 minutes is not a breakdown Benjamin
It's a mental breakdown, at the very least.
Haha that was the original draft.
They should have waited to do this now Kerr and Curry know what to expect come playoffs. Great vid
One of the reasons I was compelled to make a vid was how intricate it was for a November game.
It was a game to send a message to the league. And it's good to train your players for the playoffs. Execution is the key.
The best teams in the league have inevitability regardless of what adaptation the opponents come up. If what the Suns do still works in a 7 game series in April/May when Curry, Klay and the squad are on fire then that speaks more about THEIR inevitability outlasting Curry's inevitable big scoring moments to try keep his team on top by the end of the game.
I watched all of both of the ads, you deserve it 💯
Excellent breakdown man
Great Suns defense and an off night for Curry = one of his worst games ever
He missed 12 wide open shots
I count another three games like that onevthis season Aline, kinda regular thing, especially come playoff time
@@TyBrezzy11 that’s what off night is all about
@@javigar133 two chips and likely one more this season, stay mad
I think a lot of the success on defense is due to Chris Paul’s experience and IQ, he’s always been one of the most underrated defensive players in the league
According to Monty it’s Jae crowder
cp3 is up 7 games to 5 on curry in the playoffs...people tend to forget this...the rockets may have upset the kd led warriors in 2018 if he did not get hurt..game 7 was closer than we remember...this man would of beaten curry in 2015 i feel if the rockets did not beat the clippers...and in 2016 well cp3 got hurt just like in 2017
@@razkable such facts man cp3 is so underappreciated people think curru owns cp3 but cp3 have always come through
Keep Chris Paul and you will never win a ring.
@@mingjinlim430 do you still appreciate chris?
Another banger, thanks for sharing your skill/ hobby with us!
Hey man, thank you for the more frequent posting! We love your channel.
All credit due to the Suns for their incredible defensive prowess and the leadership CP3 provides for this young team with his BBIQ. 2 takeaways from this game that could be a preview for the playoffs.
1. The Warriors, for all the beautiful ball movement that they employ in their motion offense, is sorely in need of a big man. Like, it is glaringly obvious that none of the healthy & active bigs on the roster can deal with other teams big men like Jokic, Ayton, Embiid, etc. They get crushed on the offensive boards like a kid getting bullied by a big brother. Look back at the previous iterations of the championship Warriors. They had capable big men like Javale, Bogut, Zaza, etc. (I say capable since they fulfill the role that the Warriors desperately need with put backs, offensive boards, and rim protection.) As much as I love Bjelica and Draymond, you can't be running them out as the big man to match up against the Jokics, Embiids, and Aytons of the NBA. Maybe in small spurts, but not for the entire game, and especially not in the regular season (the playoffs are different since you can scheme to at least get some help defense with a smaller big man). I would like to see the Warriors make some moves at the trade deadline but I want to see how Klay Thompson looks on the floor before jumping to any more conclusions.
2. The Suns. Holy hell, the Suns actually look so bright right now, and maybe for years to come (depending on who they sign as well as CP3 maintaining health). It's clear that Booker is their number 1 option for a good portion of the game but it's CP3 that handles all the crunch time with Ayton and Bridges alternating as 3rd options, depending on matchups. Once Booker went out, you could tell the offense stagnated a little bit, and it was pretty obvious that once CP3 went to the bench for rest, the bench unit could be serviceable but clearly not at the level that could keep up with the Warriors offense. And it wasn't until CP3 came into the game again that the offense could start flowing again. My biggest concern for the Suns is their health. Winstreaks are great and performing at the level that they are is amazing but I'm not convinced that it is sustainable. CP3 going this hard in the regular season when not even a quarter of the season is through is bonkers. I don't want a repeat in the playoffs where CP3 goes out due to some random injury and the Suns are no longer at full strength. I can see the Suns possibly signing or trading for a back up guard, maybe taking a flier on a Kemba Walker, to provide more offense off the bench (all love to Cam Payne but please, you need to play better.)
I agree with your 2nd takeaway, Its not a good look if CP3 is playing 39 minutes this early into the season. tbf though Payne was dealing with an illness
Yeah , that is why Warrior need wiseman to fill the spot.
Whats shocking is the big gap in boards i favor of dubs
@@ammonquitalig5614 Suns don't go for boards in favor of stopping the transition
@@spamandjamjamandspam8669 nope, warriors dominated on offensive boards 15-8, 51-35 as a whole
0:41 Yeah, that was what i was thinking, when i was watching your analysis of the GS x Cavs game, Steph was exploiting and prospering on this very idea. If you keep the defender glued to him, he's just gonna make everyone bump into each other and clog the system.
So i thought "it wouldn't be better to just switch?!" That way you recover the time that Steph was trying to gain, but a counter to this counter would be creating mismatches, so i thought that they already figured out that with their personnal this wouldn't be possible. But the Suns they can.
And i think that the style that Golden State played previous season made this possible, since Steph was heavily used they had a TON of information to drawn from, they could see the soul of their style.
That was super interesting. stuff i didn't notice while watching. keep up the good work!
Great analysis! CP3 and Monty have done wonders and this is what championship D looks like.
I guess it was no championship D, the Warriors ended up with the championship D, go figure.
They didn’t have him figured out a couple days later 😂
If u think curry is gonna have another night like that you must be crazy see y’all Friday 😂😂
facts lmao
Phenomenal vids on this channel. Thank!
Please more videos like this! Love it
I feel like this is why Steph sometimes struggles in the playoffs when teams have time to prepare. OKC beat him up whenever he cut thru without the ball, too. But we will see how switching everything works when Klay and the rest are back.
He did not seem to struggle in the playoffs this year, it seems that booker struggled in the playoffs. The MAVs beat them up whenever they played them.
It's great to see how the Warriors will gameplan after this. I feel like the Suns have the right players to counter the Warriors. CP3 to make Steph work on defense, Ayton and Bridges for their length on defense, and Ayton again for a low post threat that the Warriors that don't have a counter to. I feel like they were better without Booker.
Curry really got locked up by Mikal Bridges, I’m dead 💀💀
Idk klay isn’t playing and wiseman is coming back. Steph also has a horrible shooting night and they barely won.
Granted, how much of this still works when the Warriors get Klay Thompson back? You can't help off of either player.
@@Tech-cy9yonah man they were playing so dirty off ball with no calls. Got lucky but y’all won’t be able to do that once klay is back
@@bballerjrod4 just wait until they get Devin Booker back. Their best player. I’m not a Suns fan btw
Thank you, your analysis are like candy to me
One of the best, if not the best basketball content out here on youtube
Great analysis but it was like 50% suns defence and 50% GSW off night, i think GSW will win the next game as curry will be firing on all cylinders
Warriors do love to turnover the ball. It’s a nature of their style of play. High risk-high reward. Suns rotations looked really good and while you’re gonna do that possession to possession for somebody like Steph it can get him out of rhythm which maybe the best you can do. Because not like he was missing tough shots. Those are shots he makes normally
I’ve been binge listening to all your podcasts. High quality stuff all around. Also I am super jealous you got to meet David Blaine.
Spotify Wrapped reminded me that Thinking Basketball is my favorite and most listened to podcast :)
Then where is that defensive clinic today? WHERE IS IT??????😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
amazing analysis bro,
and just before the rematch tonight.
I can't wait to see your next video after the game tonight.
keep up the good work.
You cant be a fan of basketball and not love this channel. Your eye for detail is great 💪🏽
Great game proving the Suns strength. Their next matchup is going to show us a lot of what to expect from the Warriors going forward. We’ll see if this was a lapse for them or a vulnerability other teams can exploit.
PHX wasn't able to enforce their offense on GS as well as they did to the Nets. The 2 defenses more or less worked, with the Susndefense being more effective.
What happened to the “Curry stopper”!?
this what i’m wondering
On point.. we need more of this. ☺️🔥
Yoo at 1:25 number22 and 5 were in sync...that was siiick. Also very insightful video man. Keep it up!
The Suns team are just lucky enough to have the Warriors on a bad night on offense. I can't wait for the rematch tomorrow.
There is no curry stopper
brilliant analysis
Absolutely love the flurry of videos at the moment!! I would love to see some more breakdowns on the less discussed all-stars caliber players (like the Lavine video). Domantas Sabonis and Brandon Ingram come to mind
Sabonis is not exciting to watch but yeah he can score
Well it worked 1 game I guess.
Stopper who?
This was a great video I definitely enjoyed it, and there was no biased reasons just plain old facts. Love this video indeed…nice job 💯🙏🏻
Wonderful analysis. I would like to see more breakdowns of specific games.
Just shows how important Klay is to the GS.
Klay the "Damage Goods" Thompson? I doubt he will be the same again with two major injuries. Can he even keep up with our young guns?
Actually, all players have off nights, Curry missed a few of his open shots. So, it is not entirely because of Suns defense.
but the suns threw his timing off and made him shoot shots they wanted while off balance
Just wanna thank you everyday for being a good version of Bball Breakdown
Great breakdown!!
this didnt age well
Suns brought out all their tricks, they’re screwed in a playoff setting if they matchup with the Dubs. Warriors have great minds and are easily the most adaptable team in the league.
This production is 🔥
Superb video
I think the suns for the most part got lucky. The analysis is correct. They deserve credit. caught the warriors offguard and it disrupted them and got in the warriors heads. But Warriors played horribly. Uncontested Turnovers, missing tons of easy looks. And the game was still close. If Curry gets his confidence and they make less than 20 turnovers, the warriors will win easily.
"The Suns for the most part got lucky", "If Curry gets his confidence and they make less than 20 turnovers, the warriors will win easily" lolololol
credit to the suns defense but curry was also missing some easy looks that he normally makes.
He doesnt make them when matters, same old story lol
4:26 one of the hardest laughs ive had in awhile, phenominal analysis with pretty great moments of humor
was indeed a great video, well played
Suns defense + poor shooting from Steph + 25 turnovers won't win it in any game. But even in defeat, there's a silver lining: Jordan Poole.