ANOTHER CHANCE
Suns can oust Clippers in Game 6, reach NBA Finals
Losing Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Monday night just further confirmed to Cam Johnson what's it like to battle in the postseason.
“It’s the realization that it’s not going to be easy,” Johnson said. “Everybody knew it wasn’t going to be easy going in, but also we got another opportunity in a couple of days. That’s what the playoffs are about. It’s tough and that’s what everybody said it would be and you just can’t expect a team to just roll over. They gave us a tough time. So we just have to bring it next game.” More like bring it from the start.
The second-seeded Suns fell behind 20-5 in the first quarter in losing, 116-102, before a sellout crowd of
16,664 at Phoenix Suns Arena that was ready to celebrate Phoenix's first trip to the finals since 1993 after an 11-year playoff drought.
“The desperation has to be there, that’s the deal,” Suns coach Monty Williams said after Game 5. “Just because you have a lead doesn’t mean you show up and they’re going to give it to you. We have to understand that. I think we do now. We will be better when we show up next time we play, but their desperation, their competitive edge tonight was consistent for 48 minutes. We did in spurts and certainly didn’t start the game with it.”
Now up 3-2, Phoenix will try to close this best-of-7 series in Wednesday’s Game 6 in Los Angeles at STAPLES Center where they just won Saturday, 84-80, in an ugly slugfest.
“We'll be ready to go for Game 6," Suns All-Star Devin Booker said. "That's a tough loss for us definitely with a chance to clinch going to an NBA Finals. We're going to be ready."
Before looking ahead to Game 6 in Los Angeles, here’s a look back at Game 5 in which the Suns allowed 58 points in the paint and surrendered 23 points off their 14 turnovers.
Player of Game 5 loss: Booker
Deandre Ayton went from being the hero in Game 2 and a valiant warrior with a 19-point, career-best 22-rebound performance in Game 4 to managing just 10 points on nine shot attempts against a team that was minus its starting center, Ivica Zubac, and started Game 5 with small forward Marcus Morris Sr. starting in his place.
“I just wanted to try to get Ayton out of the paint a little bit more,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “I wanted to see who he was going to guard, with Marcus and (Nicolas Batum) in there at the four and the five. So it worked out in our advantage.”
The move worked twofold.
Morris took advantage of the smaller Booker guarding him by going into the lane in scoring 20 of his 22 points in the first half.
Then on the other end, the fourthseeded Clippers went zone to start Game 5, a move that riddled the Suns early.
“We held the ball too much,” Williams said. “That’s all we talked about. Once the ball gets to the second side, take off. Shoot or get to the paint. When we did it, it looked pretty good and I thought we allowed them to force us to stay on one side of the floor instead of getting over the top of the screens.”
They also didn’t maximize Ayton’s size advantage on the inside.
“Got to do a better job of getting it to him,” Suns All-Star point guard Chris Paul said. “Get our spacing right, knowing they’re undersized and having three people sort of boxing him out or trying to hold him down. We’ve just got to pick our spots better and be more aggressive.”
‘Sending bodies’
In short, Williams said the Clippers “did a good job of sending bodies” at Ayton and added he expects more of the same from them in Game 6.
Lue had to do something to combat Ayton grabbing nine offensive rebounds in Game 4.
While small ball appears to be an odd answer on the surface, what the Clippers did was have shorter, but quicker players prevent Ayton from getting second and third attempts at offensive rebounds.
Say he got one tap. The Clippers denied Ayton another opportunity to control the ball by rebounding as a team as opposed to asking one player to keep him off the offensive glass.
Ayton finished Game 5 with three offensive boards.
Solid, but not the nine he gobbled up in Game 4.
The more alarming number for Ayton was having just nine shot attempts, especially with Jae Crowder and Mikal Bridges being almost non-factors offensively in terms of scoring.
The two combined for just nine points as Crowder shot 2-of-6 from the field, going 0-for-4 from 3, and Bridges went 2-of-5.
Booker didn’t have a scoring problem in Game 5.
Scoring a team-high 31 points, Booker shot 4-of-6 from 3. He went 9-of-22 overall with several of his misses coming in transition, but don’t blame it on the mask.
Booker said he adjusted the eye pockets so he could see better. The move proved to be beneficial.
‘Guard the ball’
Paul added 22 points, but he shot 0for-6 from 3 in his third game back after missing Game 1 and 2 under the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
Overall, the Suns All-Star backcourt put up numbers, but Phoenix didn’t keep the Clippers out of the paint as Paul George went for a playoff careerhigh 41.
Reggie Jackson added 23 points, hitting two huge 3s in a 10-2 run to give the Clippers a 108-96 lead with 4:47 left in the game.
So even if Booker and Paul improve their shooting percentages for Game 6, Williams needs better effort on defense to give him confidence the Suns can make their way to the finals.
“It comes down to being able to guard the ball and forcing them to shoot tough shots,” Williams said. “We let Paul (George) go left, step back. How many times did we see that tonight. Reggie went left into his shot. There were times we were shifting too far off of Reggie and he hit some deep 3s, but in that moment, you have to understand that he’s going to take those shots, especially late in the game.”
With Zubac listed as questionable for Game 6 and first-team All-NBA selection Kawhi Leonard ruled out for a seventh straight game with a right knee sprain suffered in Game 4 of the conference semifinals against the top-seeded Utah Jazz, Los Angeles will likely start small again Wednesday.
So after looking at film, how will the Suns attack it and how much will Ayton be a part of that equation whether it’s scoring, screening or diving to the rim to open up the floor?
DeMarcus Cousins scored a total of three points from Game 2 to Game 4. He didn’t play in Game 3, but Cousins scored 15 in Game 5.