PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns’ progress over the past week made Wednesday’s matchup with the surging Los Angeles Clippers an interesting test, but they fell 131-122 and weren’t ready.
The Clippers (21-12) won their 11th of their last 13 games, and their red-hot form delivered a strong enough first punch to close the gap on the Phoenix (18-16) on the night. . The score was 35-20 in the first quarter, and Los Angeles held the advantage until the third quarter thanks to an incredible shooting performance of 60% from the field and 15 3-pointers in the first 36 minutes.
The revelry became momentary.
There were signs of life in the third quarter when the Suns scored 40 points, nearly matching the Clippers’ 37 points. Los Angeles scored 27 of those points from the foul line or three points and held the score at 16 into the fourth quarter after the closest Phoenix scored. The third frame was 15.
And for the second consecutive game, Bol Bol brought life to the game with his energy as a big man. He assisted Eric Gordon’s 3 on a short roll, hit a 3 of his own and put the offensive rebound back in to bring Phoenix within 13 points with 7:43 left. Every time Bol did something positive, it sparked the biggest crowd reaction of the night. So his three plays in a short period of time got Suns fans completely back in the game and exploded in a way that showed the Clippers still have a lot of work to do.
With 4:19 left in the game, Bol was down to 5 points and the Suns were trailing by 8 points, but given the flow of the game, it would be a question of whether the Suns could get enough stops. L.A. is already a weird zone where “Oh, I thought we were done,” and “OK, the crowd is coming to pick us up,” and “Wait, are they shouting ‘BOL BOL’?” It was in. So who knows what will happen.
But the results continued as before, with the Clippers getting some good looks off the drop three, the Suns committing a turnover before Kawhi Leonard’s free throw, and the Clippers calmly taking a 13-point lead. After Phoenix fought back again, a strong Leonard drive and James made it. Harden’s three stepbacks were consecutive daggers.
“I’m more concerned about how we enter the game defensively,” Suns head coach Frank Vogel said. “I don’t think we had the temperament necessary to defend an elite offense, a team with a lot of firepower. … They just didn’t feel us in the first half.”
“We’ve got to start the game better with a sense of urgency and we’ve got to be ready for a fight,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “We were in an uphill battle the entire time. We showed some things in the second half of what happens when you turn up the energy and turn up the intensity.”
Without Kevin Durant (right hamstring strain), the Suns opted to once again keep the same starting lineup from Monday’s win, replacing him with Chimezie Metu. Considering the matchup, this was a huge vote of confidence from the coaching staff.
Harden is a strong, big guard and the duo of Paul George and Leonard are huge wings, and the team is lucky to have one ideal defender. Given his length and size, Durant will likely be tasked with playing against Leonard, but other areas remain questionable.
And even with the idea of circumventing man-to-man defenses with switch-heavy schemes and zone-like gimmicks, Los Angeles will still find isolation. That’s because Los Angeles entered the night No. 1 in the NBA in isolation frequency, according to NBA statistics. Metu has played solid defense for the Suns, but he hasn’t been given much of a ball-handling job, and his step up Wednesday was to protect a monster like Leonard. But Metu played just 15 minutes, and Keita Bates-Diop did his best in 21 minutes marking Leonard and George.
There’s also the Grayson Allen part of this equation, and he became something of a target for Leonard, especially in the second half.
Until Beal plays more games, Allen is Phoenix’s third-best player this year. The fifth starter spot heading into the season was supposed to be rotated based on matchup, but Allen has been critical to Phoenix’s offensive success and has contributed a lot elsewhere. Because of this, I can’t think of any other possibility. But it’s the elite size and speed that allows Allen’s on-ball defense to handle the game, making his role and the playoff hypothesis Vogel potentially have to choose from come April. There is. That was reflected in both Harden and Russell Westbrook heading towards him.
Phoenix started the game with straight plays without switching up the game too much, with Bradley Beal playing free safety with Terrence Mann (20.3% 3-point shooting this year) to fill the space like Jusuf Nurkic. I was able to do that. This and the doubles right before Leonard were good.
However, the Clippers did a great job in the first quarter with Mann scoring 12 points and George adding 17 points. There was a mistake that prevented George from getting free too often.
Still, this wasn’t the main issue. The problem was that the Suns allowed this to happen without their high energy level, allowing them to get off to a great start and take seven minutes to take the wind out of them. LA faced a few 50-50 balls in the beginning, but lacked intensity elsewhere. The Clippers jumped ahead and took a 15-point lead, but Phoenix didn’t change their position until it was too late.
Los Angeles employed its usual hyper-aggressive strategy of attacking Booker with ball screens, and did the same with Beal when he wasn’t with Booker.
The Clippers are great at doing that, but it’s often a mixed bag for the Suns. Other than six turnovers, Booker did a great job against it, but didn’t have much of a shot in the first half. These perks had zero margin for error, and once LA had the advantage, they had a chance to score 19 of their 35 points in the third quarter. The night’s game, especially the second half, was one of Booker’s best in recent memory as he made 11 of 15 shots.
Phoenix scored 101 points in the final three quarters and hit 12 triples in the second half to help accomplish the goal. Gordon had 16 points off the bench and Bol had 14 points. Beal looked great, but just like Booker on Monday, he couldn’t make the shot. He finished with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block on 7-of-20 shooting in 41 minutes.
Leonard didn’t see a double from the start, but he couldn’t guard after starting the game scoreless and ended up recording 30 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. George found way too much space all night with 33 points, which is the level needed to stop a talented team like the Clippers from playing well, although the Suns’ defensive rotation was fine. This is a nod to the fact that it had hardly reached that point. One of the best combinations of passing ability and floor vision in the NBA over the past decade, Harden easily pulled them apart, finishing with 22 points and 11 assists.
This is a trio that is nearly impossible for any defense to stop, both in personnel and execution, and the Suns are really behind. Seeing both George and Leonard in uniform on this floor again really hit home how great they are together all the time. George was incredible in the 2021 Western Conference Finals against Phoenix, while Leonard was a terminator in the first round against the Suns last year before getting injured. They can reach those heights again and ultimately, if they can stay healthy, they will be able to do it together.