win over the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> and were riding a three-game winning streak.<\/p>\nEven though Los Angeles had lost their most recent game against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers had won eight out of their last ten games.<\/p>\n
The Suns sat seventh in the Western Conference, pushing for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Ott has done a hell of a job,\u201d Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said. \u201cGuys being in, being out, and to keep his engine running the way he\u2019s done is a hell of a job. They bought into it, they play really well no matter who\u2019s on the floor, and that\u2019s the tribute to the coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Clippers sat tenth in the West, thanks to their run of form entering the year after a dreadful start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a low point,\u201d Lue said. \u201cI called a meeting with Kawhi (Leonard) and James (Harden), we sat down and talked. They bought into it; they could\u2019ve easily folded and said \u2018You know what? We 6-21, there\u2019s no way we climbing out of this\u2019 but they got better. When they got tougher, they got better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns were still without star player Devin Booker (ankle), and despite making his return against Cleveland, Jalen Green (hip) was ruled out after taking a hard fall in the previous game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just the fall,\u201d Suns head coach Jordan Ott said regarding Green. \u201cEverything was good until that fall and we\u2019re going to be smart here. Everyone saw the fall; how hard it was. Everything was good on the hamstring. Just an unlucky bounce, but he\u2019ll be out there as soon as he can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booker leads the team in points and assists, with 25.4 points per game and 6.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s skipping steps basically,\u201d Ott said regarding Booker. \u201cObviously been on the court multiple times. Trending in a good spot. We know who he is. As soon as he can get out there, he\u2019s going to get out there. Whenever he\u2019s ready, he will be out there playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Phoenix\u2019s injuries, the Clippers didn\u2019t have it any easier, as they were without Bradley Beal (hip) for the remainder of the season, but also James Harden (personal) was ruled out of the game just a few hours prior to the match.<\/p>\n
Harden led the team in assists with 8.1 APG, alongside grabbing 25.4 PPG.<\/p>\n
For Phoenix, they were still with Dillon Brooks, who averaged 21.1 PPG, alongside other high-volume shooters such as Collin Gillespie and Grayson Allen, who were both averaging 13+ PPG.<\/p>\n
Even then, the Clippers still had a star player, as Kawhi Leonard was averaging 27.7 PPG entering the match.<\/p>\n
However, the biggest matchup for both teams would likely be the center spot.<\/p>\n
Mark Williams of the Suns was averaging 8.1 rebounds per game, while Ivica Zubac was averaging a double-double, with 10.8 RPG alongside 14.6 PPG.<\/p>\n
\u201cZubac has always been huge for us,\u201d Lue said. \u201cHe plays every night; he\u2019s a post threat. Just anchoring our defense, rebounding the basketball, he does a lot for us on a night-to-night basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second unit players would also play a massive impact in determining the final score considering how many crucial players were out for both teams.<\/p>\n
Entering the second quarter, the Clippers had a 24-20 lead.<\/p>\n
For the Clippers, John Collins led the way in scoring with six points, but both Leonard and Zubac both had four points and five rebounds.<\/p>\n
As for Phoenix, Grayson Allen led the way in scoring with eight points.<\/p>\n
The Clippers came out firing, going on an 11-2 run to begin the second quarter to take a 13-point lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir size overwhelmed us at times,\u201d Ott said. \u201cWe got to use our speed the best we can, couldn\u2019t get out of transition when you\u2019re taking it out of the net so often. Their size impacted us, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, the Suns found themselves down only six entering the second half.<\/p>\n
Kawhi led the way with 14 points alongside seven rebounds, while John Collins followed with 10 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n
Zubac had already gotten 11 rebounds in the first half alone.<\/p>\n
Allen had 13 points entering the half, with Brooks following, as he had nine points alongside four rebounds.<\/p>\n
Both benches were struggling to get points, but Phoenix was struggling to capitalize.<\/p>\n
Early in the third, Royce O\u2019Neale fouled Zubac, and the referees went to see if it was enough for a flagrant foul.<\/p>\n
In the end, the referees deemed it was enough for a flagrant foul as Zubac went to the line.<\/p>\n
Less than a minute later, Kris Dunn fouled Gillespie, and that also went under review for a potential flagrant foul.<\/p>\n
After reviewing the foul, it was deemed a flagrant foul as Allen went to the line.<\/p>\n
Entering the fourth, the Clippers were looking to close the game, as Los Angeles were up 85-71.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to play those guys one-on-one,\u201d Ott said. \u201cWhen they catch it in the post, their elite scorers are down there, so our idea was to use our speed. Use our speed, use our activity, and try to turn them over. I felt at times we got some stuff, but we couldn\u2019t get any live ball turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zubac had grabbed his double-double, with 11 points and 17 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Leonard had 21 points, with Collins following him with 16 points.<\/p>\n
Allen had 19 points for Phoenix, while Brooks followed with 14 points.<\/p>\n
Williams was looking for a double-double, as he had seven points and seven rebounds.<\/p>\n
With under seven minutes to go, the game seemed over, as the Clippers had a 101-83 lead.<\/p>\n
To make things worse, Williams picked up his sixth personal foul, meaning he had fouled out of the game.<\/p>\n
In the end, the Clippers ran away with the game, winning 117-93.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, we just didn\u2019t have it,\u201d Ott said. \u201cWe felt it early; we tried to change a little bit of the rotation in the second half to try to help us. Again, credit to them, their second unit was really good. I thought the two bigs at times really hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard led the way in scoring for the Clippers with 25 points, followed by Collins, who finished with 16 points.<\/p>\n
Zubac ended up with 20 rebounds, a new season-high for him.<\/p>\n
Jordan Miller had 20 points coming off the bench for Los Angeles as well, finishing with the same number of points as the Suns bench combined.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to him,\u201d Ott said regarding Miller. \u201cJust the way the game is played right now, the ability to shoot off the dribble, he has great size. I thought he was fantastic; I thought their bench was. Their bench outplayed us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Phoenix, Allen led the way with 23 points, while Brooks trailed him with 22 points.<\/p>\n
The biggest problem for Phoenix was their shot selection, as the team went 31-for-93 as a team, going 33.3% from the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trying to adjust on the fly,\u201d Ott said. \u201cThey put two bigs out there. Obviously, that\u2019s a defensive unit, so some of the shot quality is innately going to be lower. Thought we did a good job of taking care of the basketball, didn\u2019t get to the paint or the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns fall to 30-20 while the Clippers jump to 23-25.<\/p>\n
The Suns will meet the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns (30-19) hosted the Los Angeles Clippers (22-25) at Mortgage Matchup Center on Sunday. The Suns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":["post-577626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116001980475570374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}