DeAndre Ayton hammered home an alley-oop off a brilliant inbounds pass from Jae Crowder with 0.7 seconds left to play as the Phoenix Suns took a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference final series with the Los Angeles Clippers with a 104-103 win Tuesday night.
Ayton finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds on 12-of-15 shooting for the Suns and Cameron Payne, who started at point guard for Phoenix again with Chris Paul still in health and safety protocols, had a game-high 29 points and nine assists.
The big contributions from Ayton and Payne were needed Tuesday as Suns star Devin Booker struggled, scoring 20 points on 5-of-16 shooting and even getting clocked in the nose in a collision with Clippers guard Patrick Beverly that saw him forced to go for stitches before returning to the game.
Booker and Beverly’s accident was a fitting example of the style of game that was played Tuesday: tough, physical and incredibly competitive, with very slim margin for error.
As an example, with 22.2 seconds left to play in the game, Paul George drilled a jumper to put the Clippers up 103-102 and then, with 8.2 seconds left he was fouled (after a lengthy review) and put on the line to possibly put his team up three points. But he missed them both, setting the stage for Crowder and Ayton’s game-winning heroics.
Here are a few takeaways from a wild Game 2.
Monty dials up the Triano to win the game
Way back in December 2017, Canadian coach Jay Triano dialed up a play for his Suns team that saw Dragan Bender launch a pass that looked a lot like a shot at the rim to Tyson Chandler, who was waiting underneath the rim, to dunk it home and win the game for Phoenix with 0.6 seconds left to play.
Though he wasn’t with the Suns yet at that time, current Phoenix head coach Monty Williams must’ve seen tape of that old play because he drew up a near exact replica of it to set up Ayton for his big game-winning alley-oop.
Everything about the play was pure genius, from Crowder’s near impossible pass thrown on the money over the outstretched arms of DeMarcus Cousins, to the little back screen Booker set on Ivaca Zubac to free Ayton up enough to get to the rim and in the air before Zubac could recover to stop the lob and, finally, the impressive finish from Ayton himself to catch the lob with both hands and calmly flush it home in time.
Full credit goes to Williams and the Suns, but that play may not have been possible with out an old Canadian coaching legend.
In this same arena three years ago, Jay Triano beat us with this exact play at the buzzer, Tyson Chandler had the dunk that day.
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) June 23, 2021
Hey, Scott Foster, can you please stop?
How’s this for a stat?
The last 90 seconds of the game took 33 real time minutes.
There were as many reviews (5) as field goals (5) in that span. pic.twitter.com/seEbxCoKFl
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 23, 2021
The reason why NBA basketball oftentimes gets ridiculed by casual sports fans about the endings of games taking way too damn long is because the ending of games do take too damn long.
And in the case of Tuesday’s game, it was far too apparent.
Thirty-three actual minutes to finish 90 seconds of a basketball game with five reviews is just ridiculous.
With all due respect to referee Scott Foster, there’s no fan watching at home or in the arena that wants to see him looking at monitors reviewing things every possession at the end of what was an entertaining, tension-filled game.
Just let the game breathe, man.
Clippers have Suns right where they want them?
George’s meltdown at the free-throw line will be dissected and overanalyzed to death over the next day or so until Game 3 when the series will shift to L.A.
It’ll likely be taken as a death knell for the Clippers — and it very well may be — but let’s not forget that the Clippers have been in similar backs-against-the wall situations before in this very post-season.
The Clippers are, oddly enough, 0-6 in Games 1 and 2 during these playoffs but have been an excellent 8-1 in the games afterwards.
Coincidence? Maybe, but at the same time it’s also an indication of the kind of fight this Clippers team has in it.
Don’t count them out just yet.
