As if things couldn’t get any better for the Phoenix Suns.
They have won nine straight playoff games to continue a franchise postseason record.
Her latest win came with a Jae Crowder Praise Inbounds pass from the right corner of the baseline to Deandre Ayton, who finished it 0.7 seconds with two hands and gave the Suns a shocking 104-103 win at the Phoenix Suns Arena on Tuesday and a 2- 0 lead over the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference finals.
And now their leader is on his way back.
All-Star Veteran Point Guard Chris Paul is listed as likely in Game 3 in Los Angeles Thursday after missing Game 1 and Game 2 under the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
With first-team All-NBA selection Kawhi Leonard ruled out for a fifth straight playoff game with a sprained right knee in Game 4 of the conference semifinals against top-seeded Jazz, the Clippers are facing a team that doesn’t only the best basketball of all who are still in the playoffs, Phoenix is back in full strength.
“We react well in the trenches,” said Clippers security guard Patrick Beverley as they beat 2-0 streak deficits twice to advance to this year’s playoffs. “We’ll respond well. We always do.”
The fourth-placed Clippers or the second-placed Suns can end their season in game 4 on Saturday in the STAPLES Center.
Phoenix has already found a way to win two scarce without their narrower in Paul.
“Our boys’ willingness to stick with it,” said Suns coach Monty Williams. “I thought we didn’t play great tonight, but we played enough to win the game.”
Before we look at Game 3 of this Best of 7 series in Los Angeles, let’s look back at one of the greatest wins in Rising Suns franchise history.
Player of Tuesday’s second game: Deandre Ayton
That seems like a no-brainer, right, but it really isn’t.
Just as Ayton scored a double-double of 24 points and 14 rebounds – and made his first game-winning basket with a two-handed praise finish over Ivica Zubac, he completed a game that would not happen without a Crowder’s pass.
So Ayton opened his press conference by saying, “This is definitely Jae’s game winner who makes a great pass over a 7-foot.”
Granted, DeMarcus Cousins can barely jump now and came cold off the bench just to defend the pass, but Crowder put the ball in a place only Ayton could get.
Then there is the screen of Devin Booker, who was given a piece of Zubac to give Ayton a clear path to the basket. Knowing Nicolas Batum wouldn’t leave him open, Booker essentially employed two people to give the Suns a 4-3 player advantage.
“It depends on late game situations, you can get away with a little more,” said Booker. “I know if I’m just changing direction or at least taking a step down to give DA a chance to get his feet together.”
“I’ve seen this film before”
Then there is Williams, who designed a game, knowing that “an offensive player can touch the ball in the cylinder during a throw-in,” as senior official Scott Foster explained after the game.
Williams knew the rule.
Devin Booker learned his third NBA season when Tyson Chandler finished an inbound praise pass from Dragan Bender on Summer to give the Suns a two-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I think it’s something that a lot of people don’t know,” Booker said. “Even in a conversation with (Rajon) Rondo in the half-court after the game, he says: ‘That doesn’t count.’ I say, “I’ve seen this movie before. It counts. It counts.”
Ayton doesn’t. That’s why he’s toned down his celebration for such a compelling moment that the sold-out crowd of 16,645 fans goes absolutely insane.
“I was worried, but I did what Coach told me,” said Ayton, who got laughs from the media in the room with him during the zoom call. “So I’m like, ‘Is it up to me?’ Coach looked at me and said, ‘Yo, that’s the rule.’ It’s over the top hat, you can end the game. ‘ I wasn’t sure if he was right because the other coaches pulled him aside and said, ‘Yo, we have a few more seconds.’ “
“We had no answer”
Before that, however, Cameron Payne gave the Clippers the business.
Payne replaced Paul in the starting line-up for a second game in a row, hitting a career high of 29 points, a game high of nine assists and no turnover in 37 minutes.
“We just had no answer for Cameron Payne,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. “He went downhill all night. His speed and pace really hurt us.”
The night belonged to Ayton, however, who knew how this game would end if the game went according to plan.
“I think once my feet touch the paint where I can walk upright, left, one, two, there won’t be a lot of people up there with me,” Ayton said.
What can be seen in game 3
Paul hasn’t played since June 13 when the Suns finished their round of nuggets in Denver, where he scored 37 points in the final win.
He took care of his body, but he trained a lot to give his right shoulder injury time to improve. How will his stamina be at the start of Game 3?
Booker is likely to play with a mask on Thursday after cutting his nose in the battle with Beverley that required stitches. The Clippers increased defensive intensity after Booker lost a 40-point triple-double in Game 1.
The extra attention resulted in Booker only scoring 20 on 5-of-14 and making seven of the team’s nine turnovers.
How will Booker adapt to the mask and physical defense of Clippers?
After all, if the Clippers had won, Paul George would have been the hero.
With a team high of 26 points, George gave them the lead with 22.2 seconds remaining and had a chance to increase the lead to three, but missed two free throws with 8.2 seconds to go.
The rest is Crowder-to-Ayton story, but George is the other side of that story.
“I’m always confident about the free-throw line,” said George, an 84.7% career free-throw shooter who was 86.8% off the line and 85.7% in this NBA-cut 72-game regular season This year’s postseason is shot off the line.
“I’ve always been very successful at clutching the free throw line,” continued George. “Tonight I just didn’t manage to extend the lead. So I’m not going to bet too much on that.”
George received praise for his game that failed Leonard but received another dose of criticism for missing free throws before Williams said it was the “loudest place” he has been in his career.
How will George react in Game 3 after he could have made Game 2 harder for Phoenix if he had both free throws?
Do you have an opinion on the current state of the sun? You can reach Sun’s Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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