The final NBA Western Conference showdown between the Phoenix Suns and the LA Clippers will begin without two of the league’s biggest stars.
The point guard of the Suns, Chris paul, who remains in the league’s health and safety protocols, has been ruled out for Game 1 (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN +) and the Clippers forward, Kawhi leonard, did not travel with the team to Phoenix as he continues to deal with a sprained right knee.
Anyway, don’t worry: there’s a lot of star power starting this series, and maybe even a star in the making.
What’s wrong with it Terance mann, who just scored 39 points in the Clippers’ closing win over the Utah Jazz, to play at that level when he replaced Leonard? Can Paul george continue to lead Los Angeles after living up to its “Playoff P” moniker during the Western semi-finals?
And after a week off, will he fulfill Devin Booker How did he do in the series wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets?
Our experts are analyzing each team’s path to the series and the keys that could decide who makes it to the NBA Finals.
WEST CONFERENCE FINALS
How did the Suns get here?
The road to their first Western Conference final since 2010 might have seemed easy, but for the Suns it turned out to be more difficult than it seemed.
The Lakers appeared in the first round as the scariest No. 7 seed possible, a cruel reward for Phoenix’s best regular-season result in more than a decade. The showdown against Lebron James, Anthony Davis and the defending champs initially felt like a potential recipe for a frustrating early exit, as well as an unfortunate finish that prevented a proper assessment of how good this team really was.
The Suns were down 2-1 in that series, and with Paul’s shoulder injured, it looked like the basketball gods had a point guard problem. But his shoulder improved while the Lakers’ health worsened when Davis battled a groin problem. Phoenix turned the series around, winning Game 4 on the road to even the series, setting the table to provide a pivotal loss to the defending champs in Game 5 and ultimately the close of Game 6 with Devin’s confirmation. Booker as a true superstar, when he scored 47 points.
With the Nuggets and the league MVP Nikola Jokic next, Paul’s physical improvement was essential. All it did was split Denver into one of the most ruthlessly efficient performances ever. The 36-year-old point guard averaged 25.5 points on 62% shooting (58% of 3), did not miss a free throw and had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 41-5 for the series. The Suns were dominant, winning the first three games by an average of 18.6 points. Jokic tried everything in Game 4, but it was too late to avoid the sweep.
Now the Suns and Paul are back in the realm of uncertainty: Paul remains in the league’s health and safety protocols. He will return for the series at some point, but it is a question of when and where the situation will be. Phoenix’s youth have been impressive so far, but they, along with Booker, will need to grow bigger than ever as they await Paul’s return.
– Royce Young
How did the Clippers get here?
Last postseason, the Clippers failed to close out the series against Denver, collapsing under the full weight of playoff pressure on the bubble after taking a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets. This year, the Clippers have changed.
Now they are the ones who make the historic comebacks, breaking half a century of anguish, playoff collapses and bloody seasons. They did it on Friday when they won Game 6 at Staples Center to reach their first Western Conference final in franchise history.
And the Clippers are here to seize Phoenix for Game 1 because they just refuse to wither, no matter how hot things get. The Clippers are the first team in NBA history to overcome a 2-0 deficit in multiple series in the same postseason.
They blew the first two games at home to Dallas in the first round, losing 30-11 in the first quarter of Game 3 at Dallas before coming back and taking four of the remaining five games to win the series in seven.
The Clippers then lost the first two games in the second round at Utah before winning four in a row. Even more impressive was the fact that they won the last two games against the Jazz without Leonard, who is out indefinitely with a sprained right knee.
Unlike last postseason, the Clippers have made all the right adjustments under the direction of coach Tyronn Lue. When they were perhaps a couple of bad plays away from falling 3-0 at Dallas, Lue quickly inserted Nicolas Batum instead of Ivica zubac to play with a smaller, more interchangeable defensive lineup against the Mavericks star, Luka doncic. The move turned the series upside down, forcing now-former Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle to attempt to counter the starter. Boban marjanovic.
And against Utah, Lue’s small lineup did wonders again, this time neutralizing the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. Rudy gobert. With Leonard out, 6-foot-5 Terance Mann started and scored 39 points in Game 6, sparking the biggest second-half comeback in a series-clinching game, erasing a 25-point deficit early on. of the third quarter.
“It’s a completely new 2021 season,” he said. Reggie jackson, who has been a key player for the Clippers. “And that’s all we have in mind is figuring out how we can be the best team that we can this year … and then trying to be the last ones standing.”
“Fortunately we gave ourselves a chance and we are going to play a great team in Phoenix. But for us, we don’t want the journey to end here.”
– Ohm Youngmisuk
Series Keys: How big can Ayton be and how productive will the Clippers bench be?
The Clippers’ small lineups present a different challenge for the Suns than they faced the Lakers and Nuggets, who played conventionally with crosses on the court in the first two rounds. That created opportunities for Booker and Paul on the pick-and-roll, particularly against Denver. Paul scored 1.15 direct-screen points against the Nuggets, according to Second Spectrum tracking, an average that would have been second among regulars during the regular season.
Assuming they continue to use the lineups that ended their series against the Mavericks and Jazz with no player taller than the 6-foot-8-inch duo of Batum and Marcus Morris Sr., the Clippers will try to slow down Phoenix’s pick-and-roll with frequent changes. They have changed more than any other team in the playoffs according to Second Spectrum, and they have changed 43% of the time with Zubac on the bench. Meanwhile, opponents have traded against the Suns only 11% of the time so far.
PHOENIX I LOVE YOU 🤞🏿 pic.twitter.com/VODAQISjzg
– Deandre Ayton (@DeandreAyton) June 14, 2021
Certainly Booker and Paul have the ability to make one-on-one plays against changes in the same way that he did. Donovan Mitchell for Utah. Still, for the math to work in Phoenix’s favor, Ayton will have to make the Clippers pay for his lack of size in the paint. He’s a more skilled big man than the Clippers faced in the first two rounds, having crushed the Lakers by averaging 21.7 points per game on 82% shooting from the court in the first three games of that series.
Ayton’s offensive rebound will be particularly key. He has secured nearly 1 in 10 failures for the Suns in the playoffs and may need to improve that against the Clippers.
Otherwise, the conference finals are a similar showdown for Phoenix to their second-round win over Denver – a low-handed team trying to keep up with the Suns’ attack. That proved impossible for the Nuggets, who played the entire series without the injured guard. Jamal murray, they started without the titular wing Will barton and they had Michael porter jr. playing with a back injury that limited him.
Like Denver in the first round against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Clippers were able to overcome Leonard’s loss in the final two games of the series with a knee injury, thanks to unexpected contributions from role players. Jackson, currently working a 50-40-90 playoff campaign, has been outstanding during the postseason, while Mann gave the Clippers an incredible boost as a replacement for Leonard in the top five. If it weren’t for Mann’s 39-point Game 6, the Clippers would probably be gearing up for a decisive game in Salt Lake City right now.
As with the Nuggets, sustainability is the issue for the Clippers. Austin rivers, who hit 48% of his 3s in the first round, saw that drop to 27% against Phoenix. The reserve escort Mount morris went from .560 of actual shots to .482. Unless Kawhi can return in this series, the Clippers probably can’t afford a similar regression from Jackson and Mann.
As long as Paul can play, the Suns present fewer promising places to attack one-on-one than the Jazz’s starting lineup, which was built around Gobert cleaning up paint clutter, something he found more challenging against the Clippers’ five. In attack, Phoenix does not depend so much on Ayton to protect his rim and will depend more on Paul and Mikal bridges contain their opponents in hopes of keeping the Clippers out of the paint.
– Kevin Pelton