The LA Clippers, for the first time in franchise history, are playing in the Western Conference Finals (get used to hearing about how this is their first one, it’s going to be said somewhere between 10 and 11 billion times on TV in the next week). We can only be thankful that the team is healthy and rested and ready to put their best foot forward in such a big and historic opportunity.
Except star forward Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely with a knee sprain (he may return at some point in this series but the outlook is uncertain at best), and championship big man Serge Ibaka has been shut down for the year following back surgery. And the Clippers have to pack up their celebration from Friday’s late-night series-clinching win over the Utah Jazz and head to Phoenix for a Sunday afternoon tip-off. And the Clippers have played every other day in June, 9 games without a 2-day break, while the Suns will have had 6 days off leading into game 1.
Ok. So maybe this isn’t gonna be so easy after all.
Series Schedule:
The Big Picture
No matter what happens, the Clippers are here. It’s both not particularly meaningful in the grand scheme of things (most teams have made a conference finals in recent memory and this has both been a bare minimum expectation for LAC the last two years and is a spot they expect to be back in for the next few seasons) and extremely historically significant. Most importantly, the team’s ability to both be on track for the Western Conference Finals earlier this week and ultimately win two straight games against the Utah Jazz to clinch their first ever WCF appearance without Kawhi Leonard has cemented the good vibes around this core and supporting cast. The biggest question surrounding this group this season was not whether or not they’d win the 2021 title–it was whether or not reinvesting in this group for 3-5 more years was a worthwhile endeavor in the pursuit of a title. The answer, in my mind, is a clear year.
The Antagonist
The Phoenix Suns have taken a bit of a different path to the 2021 Western Conference Finals than the Clippers. Last a playoff team in 2010, the Suns have had a mostly dismal decade. But the NBA’s Orlando bubble provided their young core with a unique opportunity to build momentum as they vied for the inaugural play-in tournament. Despite falling short of that goal, the Suns still accomplished the momentum-building–they went 8-0, including a Devin Booker gamewinner over these Clippers, and walked away from Orlando feeling like they were legitimately a win-now move away from contention despite falling just short of a spot in the play-in.
That feeling was right. The Suns made that big win-now move, acquiring Chris Paul in the off-season, and never looked back. Behind Paul and Booker, accented by existing Phoenix youngsters like Mikal Bridges, DeAndre Ayton, and Cameron Johnson, the Suns were able to fill out their rotation with veteran role players and earn the 2nd best record in the Western Conference this season. Phoenix’s biggest trial came in the first round against the LA Lakers, where they undeniably benefited from the Lakers’ poor health but also endured a severely limiting shoulder injury to Chris Paul and played exceptionally gritty basketball on both ends of the court to send the defending champs packing. Then, in the second round, the Suns were again a bit fortunate to draw a Denver Nuggets squad without Jamal Murray–but were again not just triumphant but resoundingly so, sweeping the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in order to reach the Western Conference Finals a week ahead of the Clippers.
Projected Starting Lineups:
LA Clippers: Reggie Jackson – Terance Mann – Paul George – Marcus Morris – Nicolas Batum
Phoenix Suns: Cameron Payne – Devin Booker – Mikal Bridges – Jae Crowder – DeAndre Ayton
- The Stars: Arguable the most important player for each of these teams, Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard have each been confirmed to be out for game 1 of this series as Paul works to clear the NBA’s health and safety protocolas and Leonard recovers from a knee injury suffered as a result of a foul by Joe Ingles late in the Clippers’ game 4 blowout win over the Utah Jazz. Both teams are undeniably altered by these absences, and the difficulty in predicting this series lies not just in anticipating how each team will account for these absences, but in the impossibility of guessing if and when each player will return to their team’s lineup.
- Rest vs Rust: This debate is a bit overplayed in mainstream NBA media circles, but it’s an undeniable element of the opening game of this series: the Clippers have played 13 playoff games, including a closeout game in Los Angeles Friday night before flying to Phoenix for this Sunday afternoon Western Conference Finals opener. The Suns last played last Sunday, when they closed out their second-round sweep against the Denver Nuggets. Will the Clippers’ weary legs, following long, high-intensity minutes against the Utah Jazz, betray them today? Or will their momentum carry them past a Suns team that may have seen their edge dulled by inaction over the last week?
- Content: For a thorough preview of the Clippers’ first-ever Western Conference Finals against the Phoenix Suns, check out a new extra-length episode of The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast featuring myself, Dr. Shap, and Robert Flom as we discuss each team’s mindset entering the series, break down a basic Suns scouting report, comment on the important match-ups we’ll see in this series, and give our predictions for who will advance to the NBA Finals.
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