PHOENIX — Deandre Ayton couldn't stop smiling after the Phoenix Suns' 104-103 win on Tuesday gave them a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals over the LA Clippers.
The big man wore a permagreen while enjoying the joy that came from sipping the go-forward bucket in the final seconds of the game, ending one of the most dramatic alley-ops in NBA playoff history, but he didn't want one of these. any credit.
"I'll start by saying that definitely Jae [Crowder] is the game winner, making a great pass to the 7-footer," Ayton said after his dunk with 0.7 seconds in his final on 12-for-15. Extended the row to 24 points. Shooting and 14 rebounds.
No one seemed to want the singles spotlight on the Sons as the franchise drew within two wins of its first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.
No Suns coach Monty Williams to prepare the play. He said he stole parts of the playbooks of former Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown and former Phoenix coach Joe Prunty to think together.
"I wish I was so bright," he said, "but I'm not."
Nott guard Cameron Payne, who, with nine assists and zero turnover, put up a career-best 29 points when filling in for Chris Paul, kept close to the start.
"I'm just trying to keep it up till CP comes back," he said.
Knotts Sons star Devin Booker, who played with a swollen face and crooked nose after catching Patrick Beverly head-butt in the third quarter, left him bleeding and requiring three stitches. He set the screen on the Clippers' 7-foot, 240-pound center Ivica Zubac to open Ayton for that last-second lob.
"It feels better now," she later said of her nose, not sure if it was broken. "If we lost, I think it would hurt a little more. That's good."
And not too crowded to make a pass. He didn't even speak to reporters afterward, when he certainly would have had questions about his pinpoint delivery, sailing the ball from his spot on the baseline and over the basket to catch Ayton.
"He put it where only the DA could get it," Williams said of Crowder. "It was a lot of awareness by them."
It was a team victory for a team that has been as perfect as any other during the 2021 playoffs, even with Paul's absence, due to the league's health and safety protocols, in the conference finals. till now.
Williams said Phoenix showed up leading to a winning play—one that had already been dubbed "The Valley Oop" by NBA TV's Matt Viner—that really gave the Sons a chance.
Because before they could execute the gully-up, they had to stop a missed opportunity to advance with the first 9.3 seconds when Booker, wrapped around Beverly, lost the ball out of bounds.
And then, when Paul George missed two free throws with 8.2 seconds, Sun' Mickle Bridge had to secure a defensive rebound to give Phoenix the final authority to pull off the final flush.
"It's one of those things that happens where you're only grateful," Williams said. "Our people want to stick with it. I didn't think we played well tonight, but we made enough plays to win the game."
Meanwhile, the Clippers failed to capitalize on a game that was meant to be taken, and are now trailing 2-0 for a third straight series this post season.
"This game, I've played a lot of games in this league, it's tough," said Beverly, who debuted in Game 2. "There it goes. It's a tough game to swallow because you look at this game, I mean, we've won this game, you know.
"But we've been in the trenches before. We respond well in the trenches. We'll respond well. We always do."
The Clippers are already the only team in NBA history to pull off multiple 2–0 deficits and win in a single post-season. They lost the first two at home in the first round before overcoming Dallas in seven games, and they lost the first two in Utah and beat the Jazz four times in a row.
"Well, with this team, if anything, we are more confident," George said. "Every series we've been down 0-2, we've handed two wins to the other team."
For a fourth straight game without injury Kawhi Leonard due to a sprained right knee, George again led the Clippers and put them in position to steal Game 2 on the road. He scored 26 points and made six rebounds and six assists. George scored his nine points in the final 2:41 and erased a seven-point deficit from the fourth quarter.
But to give him a three-point lead with 8.2 seconds, George surprisingly missed both free throws despite coming into the game 89.2% from the free throw line this post season.
George later said, "I wouldn't put much on that." "Certainly it was a missed opportunity. Pat made an incredible play that put me in a position to extend the lead. I've always been confident on the free throw line. I've always been very successful in clutch moments on the free throw . Queue."
Clippers coach Ty Lew said George should not be blamed for the loss.
"She's fine," said Lew. "It's part of the game. It happens. It's not his fault. Without him we wouldn't have been in the game anyway. Made some big plays down the stretch and he made a big play at the end to win the game."
A major play that Ayton said was the type of sacrifice Sun regularly made for each other in pursuit of the championship.
"We don't know who will drop 30, we don't know who's going to hit the game winner. How's this team," he said. "We play for each other, and the most important thing we do is together. We try not to break it."