The Clippers would outlast the Suns on Thursday night, ending Phoenix’s seven-game winning streak as the visitors eventually succumbed to fatigue accrued in an overtime win last night. The Suns controlled the game early, the three-pointer is king, the Clippers’ stars played like stars, Rajon Rondo loves being on national television, and more coming up in this game recap:
Clippers Shoot Their Way Past Tired Suns
Chalk this one up to the three-point line and the schedule. (Some players did their part too, and we’ll get to them.) But no matter the reason, the result is important. With this victory, the Clippers moved themselves closer to the second seed and cemented the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Suns squad sitting in it.
So, what can we take away from this one?
The Suns are legit. When they had their legs, they played the better game. Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and company controlled the contest from the opening tip, dictating the pace — slow, as a Chris Paul team wants it — and leading in several key statistical categories.
In building to a (slight) two-point halftime lead, the Suns converted a season-high 65.7% of their first-half field goals. They finished above 50%. They dominated inside, winning the game’s points-in-the-paint battle by a margin of 16. Booker and Paul flourished from midrange, and when the Clippers ventured out to challenge them, Deandre Ayton prospered behind them. The Suns won the fast break battle 14 to five and out-blocked the Clippers six to one.
Booker finished with a team-high 24 points, juiced by a 12-for-14 night on free throws. The Suns won there too, earning 18 more tries than the Clippers with 14 more makes.
Ayton was too much for any Clipper to handle, even Ivica Zubac, and ESPECIALLY Patrick Patterson. He rang up 20 points and 10 rebounds, four of them offensively, on a neat 9-for-11 shooting line.
Paul added 13 points in 32 minutes. Mikal Bridges was the only Sun to thrive from long range, canning half of his six tries from deep on his way to 20 points.
Yeah, let’s talk about threes.
The three-pointer is the equalizer. If you thought a two-point halftime lead and eventual ten-point loss vibrated with the Phoenix-centric opening section, well here’s the explanation. Suns not named Bridges couldn’t buy a three, and Clippers not named Nic Batum couldn’t miss.
The Clippers remained at the Suns’ collective heels by taking and making their favorite shot. They struck from the corners, from above the break, on catch and shoot, off the dribble, when open, and when guarded. In all, the Clippers made 18 of 37 treys, good for a healthy 48.6%.
As mentioned, Phoenix received half its three-pointers from the aforementioned Bridges. Their six makes in 24 tries equalled a 25% rate, and you probably didn’t need a calculator to figure that one. They missed good looks too, especially in the crucial late-third/early-fourth stretch when the Clippers flipped the game for good. Call it variance, call it tired legs, but whatever you call it, call it the ballgame. The Clippers recorded a 36-point advantage from deep, and it was too much for the Suns to overcome.
Stars playing like stars. Neither was dominant throughout, and often they were at their best without the other, but in critical moments, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George impacted the game indelibly.
George was at his best early and then again late. With Kawhi scuffling through an eight-point, four-turnover first half, George shook off his ailing foot for a fireworks show. He scored 18 with four made threes by halftime and added 15 with three more treys to finish with a game-high 33. He bookended a fourth-quarter Phoenix timeout with clutch three-pointers to squelch the Suns’ attempt to regroup for a late push.
But if it was George’s scoring that started and ended the victory, it was Kawhi who forced the turning point in the middle. After the Clippers weathered a quick Phoenix run to begin the third quarter, Kawhi triggered his attack mode, detonating for 14 of his 27 points in the frame and putting the very large Ayton on a poster with his submission for dunk of the year.
Rajon Rondo playing like a star. The Clippers’ stars give the team its best chance to win, but the odds obviously improve when they get strong side contributions too. Tonight, Rondo added another chapter to his national TV legend. The veteran (and embattled) guard scored 15 points, third-best for the Clippers on the night, dished a team-high nine assists, and illustrated his overall impact with a game-high plus-24 rating in 19 minutes.
Rondo commanded a bench group that tyrannized its Phoenix counterpart, finding instant chemistry with Patrick Patterson and easing the creative load on the Clippers’ wing stars. The Suns’ second-unit defensive impotence contributed, but Rondo took one step toward justifying his midseason addition with this performance.
No love lost. It’s getting easier to list the teams the Clippers DON’T have beef with, but with Paul and the secretly feisty Booker on the other side, the Clippers-Suns rivalry continued to heat up. This game saw a Flagrant 1 on a Booker elbow into Kawhi’s collar, and a Flagrant 2 ejection on a Patrick Beverley elbow into a flying Paul.
Kawhi was poked in the eye in the first half and blamed it for his turnovers postgame. Reggie Jackson was poked in the eye in the second half and spent time recovering in the locker room. The game had effectively been decided by this point, but Marcus Morris Sr. earned a second technical foul and his own ejection to match his twin brother Markieff’s ouster from the Lakers-Heat contest earlier tonight.
Add it all up, and a playoff series between these two teams should feature closely contested basketball, and some aggressive non-basketball too.
That does it for this recap of the Clippers’ win over the Suns. Stay on the lookout for Lucas’ player grades tomorrow morning, and an episode of TLTJTP soon.
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