Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton said closeout games are difficult to navigate. The Clippers are holding out hope – although slim – that rings true this week as they try to stave off elimination in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
“I’m pretty sure they’re going to throw an even bigger punch than the one they did (Saturday),” Ayton told azcentral.com after the Suns took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with a 112-100 victory against the Clippers.
The Clippers are going to need everything they can throw at the Suns considering they still are without their 1-2 punch. Barring any unforeseen developments, All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are expected to miss Game 5 when the series resumes Tuesday night in Phoenix.
Both Clippers stars are out with sprained right knees.
“Obviously with PG and Kawhi down, that changes the rotation, changes guys in and out of the lineup,” Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook said. “But we make no excuses around here. It’s the next-man-up mentality, and we’ve just got to make sure we rally around each other, keep competing and leave it on the floor, and that’s all you can do.”
The fifth-seeded Clippers have shown that kind of willingness in their past two games, challenging the fourth-seeded Suns in the latter stages before running out of steam to fall behind in the series.
Coach Tyronn Lue said facing that kind of deficit, especially without Leonard and George, leaves little room for mistakes, the kind of self-inflicted errors that cost them in their previous two games.
In both those losses, late-game effort could not erase sloppy play early. The Suns took 21 more free throws than the Clippers on Thursday and 17 more Saturday.
The Clippers, who have had trouble hanging onto the ball all season, turned the ball over 13 times in Game 4 against the Suns’ talented trio of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, and 18 times in Game 3.
Booker is averaging 34.8 points, 5.5 assists and 2.1 steals in the first round of playoffs, and Durant is posting 27.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists. Paul leads the team with 8.5 assists and helped close out their Game 4 win with a strong fourth quarter.
“They are a great team, great players, great coach in Monty (Williams), so our margin for error is very slim,” Lue said. “We can’t turn the ball over eight times in one quarter. We can’t give up offensive rebounds. We can’t do things like that, especially when you’re shorthanded.
“So, those things we’ve just got to clean up, like I said. But I can’t fault these guys in the locker room. They give me everything they have got every single night and they have got to bring it again on Tuesday.”
In other words, the Clippers need to play near-perfect basketball if they want to stay alive in the postseason. Otherwise, the championship talk will be put on hold. Again.
“We just have to stay with it, keep being encouraging,” Lue said. “You know, don’t pull guys out when they make a mistake, when they don’t make shots. I think it’s more so about giving those guys confidence to play through it a little bit, and that’s pretty much my formula.
“You want to always breed confidence in your players and that’s what we try to do – not just me but my whole coaching staff.”
