Deandre Ayton was dominant for the Phoenix Suns, he finished with 19 points, 22 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Phoenix Suns take home a hard-fought Game 4 victory against the Los Angeles Clippers. After Deandre Ayton played the best basketball game of his. Suns were up by 16 points at one point, the Clippers rallied to get the deficit down to only one point. But they could not tie the game or take the lead. After several controversial calls in the final minutes, Suns walked away with an 84-80 victory that gives them a 3-1 lead in the series.Â
Devin Booker led the way for the Suns with 25 points. Chris Paul struggled from the field, but he hit the clutch free throws which sealed the win for Phoenix. Deandre Ayton was dominant finishing with 19 points, 22 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Deandre Ayton’s huge night on both ends puts the @Suns up 3-1 in the #NBAWCF presented by AT&T! They can clinch a spot in the NBA Finals with a win Monday at 9 PM ET on ESPN. #ThatsGame #NBAPlayoffs
Devin Booker: 25 PTS
Chris Paul: 18 PTS, 7 AST pic.twitter.com/b9IOE4n1hy— NBA (@NBA) June 27, 2021
On the other side, Paul George led the Clippers with 23 points, but he shot poor, 5 of 20 from the field. The Clippers made only 32.5 percent of their field goals and 16.1 percent of the three-point land.Â
Deandre Ayton played the best basketball game of his. His 22 rebounds are a new career-high. He shot 8 of 14 from the field. Meanwhile, the other five Phoenix starters combined to shoot 18 of 58. He had four blocks, and that doesn’t even do justice to what a remarkable defensive night Ayton had. Very few centers in basketball can defend the pick-and-roll as well as he did. It’s going to prove very useful for the Suns as they go deep.
DEANDRE. AYTON. DOMINATION.@DeandreAyton scores 19 points while tallying #NBAPlayoffs career highs in boards (22) and blocks (4), putting the @Suns up 3-1! #ThatsGame
Game 5 – Monday, 9pm/et, ESPN pic.twitter.com/tovZKKCbpi
— NBA (@NBA) June 27, 2021
These kind of defence centric games tend to come down to two things, and the Clippers right now are missing both. The first is a superstar who can make shots on his own. The Clippers made only three field goals in the fourth quarter. Typically, Kawhi Leonard would be attempting many of the shots his teammates missed. Without him, the burden fell to Paul George, who shot 5 of 20 in Game 4. But that may have come down to the second major factor in these playoff games: fatigue.
The Suns played nine games in the past 25 days. The Clippers have played 13. The Suns got a week of rest before this series because they swept the Nuggets. Game 1 tipped around 40 hours after the Clippers finished off the Utah Jazz in the second round. Maybe an extra day of rest would have given the Clippers enough gas to finish this thing off.Â
The Suns will have a chance to clinch their first trip to the NBA Finals on Monday, when the two teams meet for Game 5 in Phoenix.