A day after pronouncing the Suns the victors over the Clippers, I am doing a 180 and I am now siding with the Clippers. Yes, the ol’ flip flop.
Also, a day after ripping the Clippers for coming out flat at home in the first half, the Suns, in a game that could send them to the NBA Finals and provide them some rest, came out flat and recovered, but the lack of energy and sense of urgency was never there. It was like a drunken gambler who goes up big and then just starts shooting off wild bets and before you know it they are calling their cousin in Tallahassee to bring them some clothes because they lost everything.
And many would say the hero of Game 5 is Paul George with a stat line of 41, 13 and 6 leading the way and doing this to Chris Paul…
Some or maybe just a couple people(Okay, just me cause I want to throw up this stat and talk Ty Lue) would say Ty Lou has instilled a confident, no fear mentality into these Clippers. Lue has been in this position before and has had great success with his back up against the wall.
Yet, I am going to say that the hero of this game was a person who didn’t even play in this game and no it is not Kawhi Leonard. I am speaking, of course, about Ivica Zubac.
Yes, Ivica Zubac actually unlocked the Clippers tonight by not only pinning the backs of the Clipper players against the wall, but making them play at a higher level and when I mean higher level I mean not miss a shot cause nobody would be there to rebound it. With Zubac out that meant that DeAndre Ayton had to guard Marcus Morris away from the basket which lead to the Clippers attacking the basket at will and racking up 58 points in the paint. A good thing since they shot 33% from 3 tonight.
And while the Clippers were attacking the basket the Suns were ugh, they were ugh, see what had happened was…Well, they just didn’t do much of anything. The Suns won the tip, Marcus Morris forgets who he is guarding and leaves Ayton running down the lane wide open and Chris Paul does not pass him the ball. A dunk or layup that would have blown the roof off the place and ignited the Suns does not happen, instead Booker misses a jumper and the Clippers go down and hit a three courtesy of Reggie Jackson. It would turn into 18-5 Clippers to start the game and the Suns, though they did rally in the 3rd quarter did not take advantage of a center-less Clippers, the home crowd, and the momentum of Saturday’s win.
That Ayton miss was emblematic of the Suns whole evening—Missed Opportunities. Her are Ayton’s last 4 game stats:
With Zubac guarding him Ayton was efficient shooting the ball down low. But with the likes of Marcus Morris, DeMarcus Cousins and getting guys like Luke Kennard and Patrick Beverly switched onto him the Suns never took advantage of Ayton down low. Instead, Ayton takes 9 shots, making 5, while Chris Paul and Devin Booker go 17-41 including 4-12 from 3. How does a coach or Chris Paul or DeAndre Ayton not recognize the mismatch, have him park his butt down low and punish the Clippers for playing small? Why is a guy playing his best basketball being ignored for jump shots when his man is 5 inches shorter than him and 30 pounds lighter?
This seriously calls into question Ayton’s role and playing time for the rest of the series. He was a no-show tonight and a non-factor in the biggest game in Phoenix in the last 30 years. The Clippers played small and won so they are definitely going to keep exploiting the Ayton matchup so if the Suns are not going to use him offensively then there is no point for him to be out there for long stretches if he is not going to be in the mix offensively. It would be better to put in Cam Johnson and open up the floor for Paul and Booker to get to the rim.
And on the other side we had a DeMarcus Cousins sighting to the tune of 15 points on 12 shots. DeMarcus Cousins played more inspired ball down low than Ayton or the Suns even tried to.
Cousins, George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris combined to score 101 points. The Suns as a team had 102 points.
But more importantly was this Chris Paul and Patrick Beverly interaction-
Beverly not only flips Paul over after undercutting him, but he then mocks Paul as flopping which elicits no response from the Suns other than a DeAndre Ayton “This Fool” look. The Clippers were looking for a fight and the Suns were hoping the Clippers would just concede the game on the road because that has been their MO the last few weeks. It just demonstrates that the Suns were not ready for this game and the Clippers didn’t care that this was a road game and they were facing elimination. The Clippers looked more the part of the team ready to end this than the Suns did.
Here are the Clippers currently:
Here are the Suns currently:
With the series shifting back to LA on Wednesday I think the Suns now have more questions than answers while the Clippers have a cool, calm, confident feeling because they have been here and done that this past month.
So make sure to keep this Friday open or cancel all plans because we will be seeing a game 7 in Phoenix.
The Clippers are fine. The Suns…not so much.