It was a game where nobody could find the bottom of the net.
The Phoenix Suns’ Game 4 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers wasn’t so much a marathon as it was an off-road trail run. Imagine an uphill trek through rocky terrain, with your shirt and shoes drenched in a mixture of sweat and mud. You crawl to the finish line, grappling on every loose weed and rock to force your way to the top.
In this era of pace and space, the Clippers and the Suns figured in a throwback, slow grinding game highlighted by horrendous shooting. The Suns shot 36 percent and made only four triples out of 20 attempts. The Clippers, on the other hand, went 32 percent overall and shot 5-for-31 from deep. One of the more glaring stats of Game 4 was the combined 16 consecutive misses in the fourth quarter for nearly four minutes.
Both teams would obviously want to shoot exponentially better, but the West finals may have reached a significant turning point. The Clippers and the Suns have laid all their cards on the table and it will come down to who will blink first.
Coach Tyronn Lue has done a tremendous job adjusting throughout the playoffs, including a third-quarter turnaround in this game. They sputtered 36 points in the first half, which tied the fewest points in playoff franchise history after the first two quarters via ESPN Stats and Info.
But after shooting 13-for-44 in the forgettable first half, they went out of the locker room renewed and went 11-for-20 to get back into the game. Reggie Jackson and Ivica Zubac played the entire third period and did the heavy lifting. Zubac scored seven points while Jackson had nine. The unlikely duo, together with Paul George, plus combinations of either Terance Mann, Marcus Morris Sr., and Patrick Beverley did the trick. A few minutes of Nicolas Batum and Luke Kennard made a slight difference as well.
It seems that Lue had decided to go with size rather than force small ball on the Suns given that Morris might still be bothered by knee soreness. Nonetheless, Zubac has been playing well and doing a good job as anybody trying to slow down Deandre Ayton.
Unfortunately for the Clippers, they’ll probably be anguishing over the fact that they were 0-for-12 in the final frame on shots that could have either tied the game or took the lead. Per ESPN Stats and Info, that’s the highest field goal attempts without a make in the fourth in the last quarter-century. After trailing for most of the game, the Clippers came to within a point four times in the final moments but just couldn’t push ahead.
On Monty Williams' side, the sudden insertion of Abdel Nader, who hasn’t seen action in the past three months, was a way to ignite the Suns and just give the defense an alternate look. He played Nader for a total of five minutes, including late in the game for defensive purposes.
Williams also seemed to have cut down his rotations as we saw only 19 seconds of Torrey Craig, a handful of minutes for Dario Saric, and zero for E’Twaun Moore. The Suns’ defense can’t afford to relax with all the shooting that the Clippers bring, that’s why lengthy forwards Mikal Bridges logged in 39 minutes and Jae Crowder tallied 34 minutes.
It’s the little adjustments that matter in these high-stakes playoffs. The eyesore shooting was a product of both teams simply missing shots and the defense cranking up.
The Clippers’ ploy of continuously moving the ball and finding a crack that will open up a shooter has been slowed down by the Suns. Though the Clippers’ Game 4 misses were a lot of open ones, the Suns didn’t allow those momentum-shifting shots from either Mann, Kennard, or Beverley.
In the same way, the Clippers have put the clamps on the corner and elbow triples from Bridges and Crowder. The main concern for them at this point is moving up closer to Chris Paul and Devin Booker on their midrange game. The Suns’ one-two punch didn’t make a 3 but Booker got 25 and Paul had 18. The two got to the teeth of the defense and either made a pull-up or got to the line. The Clippers will have to make the right read to cut those lanes for Paul and Booker.
The Suns barely managed to come out of the rubble, but sometimes that’s what you need in the playoffs: getting down and dirty. The key for them was Paul being the primary decision-maker.
Paul only had one field goal (1-for-7) in the fourth but he knew what to do in those closing minutes. He dealt the finishing touches at the charity stripe. As the Clippers were desperately trying to make one and miss the other from the line to catch up, Paul calmly went 5-for-6. It was his leadership and smarts that tipped the Suns to victory.
Game 4 was a product of two teams trying to outwit each other for the fourth consecutive game. The series has been one squad countering the other and vice versa. The Suns have their ace in the hole with Paul.
The Point God is willing to use every trick he has in his arsenal to get to his first Finals appearance. For Los Angeles, is George going to be the locksmith that can unlock the Clippers and extend the series?
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