Getting even: Phoenix Suns knot series with Game 4 win over Los Angeles Lakers
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The Phoenix Suns got even Sunday.
With stifling defense and balanced offense, coupled with Anthony Davis missing the second half with a groin injury and Chris Paul playing his best ball since injuring his right shoulder in Game 1, the Suns evened this best-of-7 series with an 100-92 Game 4 win over the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers before 8,025 fans at STAPLES Center.
“The playoffs bring you to your limits in a lot of ways and that’s how you grow,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “You’re watching our young team grow on the fly.”
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With Davis out and Paul looking more like himself in posting a team-high 18 points, nine assists and zero turnovers in 32 minutes, Phoenix returns home with huge momentum for Tuesday’s Game 5 at Phoenix Suns Arena, the series tied 2-2.
“They played well,” Lakers forward LeBron James said. “I tip my hat to them. They came in, they played extremely well. It’s going to be a big-time Game 5 come Tuesday.”
The Suns will allow 16,000 fans amid COVID-19 restrictions, up from about 11,000 for Game 2.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “I just hit my socials and said, ‘Back to the desert.’ I know we got an extra 5,000 in there from (Game 2).”
That 16,000 will essentially fill the arena, which now has a capacity of a little more than 17,000 after an initial $230-million renovation project that’s now closer to $250 million.
“It’s the atmosphere that this organization, this fan base and this city has been waiting on,” Booker continued. “The first two games, it felt like it was a full house already. So with the addition of 5,000 more, I’m sure it’s going to be jumping in there.”
After Saturday’s practice, Davis said Game 4 was the “biggest game” of this series unless there’s a Game 7. With Phoenix winning Sunday, there will at least be two more games as the series returns to Los Angeles for Thursday’s Game 6.
By then, either the second-seeded Suns or seventh-seeded Lakers will have a 3-2 lead looking to end the series. Game 7 is set for June 5 in Phoenix.
“It’s a roller coaster,” Williams said. “When you’re in the playoffs, you have time in between games. You can’t even imagine the thought process of what your rotations is going to be like, how is it going to affect the team? Making the right decisions on who to fill those minutes for that particular player. There’s a lot that goes on and we just don’t take health for granted and we don’t take efforts that our guys put in the floor for granted.”
As much as this is about Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson getting their first career taste of the postseason and the Suns ending an 11-year playoff drought, perhaps the biggest moment for Phoenix in this series came when Williams initially decided to sit Paul.
“We had a long talk before the game and the focus was on can he be himself and be effective,” Williams said.
So Suns General Manager James Jones, Williams and Paul had an emotional conversation as the 16-year veteran made his case to suit up after his play digressed in Game 2 and Game 3, both Phoenix losses.
“Just understanding that it was an afternoon game and I’ll have a couple more days to rest,” said Paul, who didn’t practice Friday or Saturday after Thursday’s Game 3 loss. “That’s the only way they say I can treat what’s going on is by resting. I’m just glad that coach and I got the relationship that we can have that conversation.”
Paul told Williams if he didn’t look more like himself early to take him out.
“Told the guys, I said I don’t know if it’ll be two minutes, I don’t know if it’ll be 32 minutes, I feel like I got to try to give you what I got,” Paul said.
After those talks that included a call to his brother, C.J. and “his team,” Paul proceeded to have his best game of the series as he shouted, ‘I’m back.” after one of his patent fading jumpers over Lakers center Andre Drummond.
“He was big-time,” said Suns guard Cameron Payne about Paul, who entered Game 4 averaging just 6.7 points on 38.3% shooting and 6.3 assists in the series.
Paul wasn’t alone in helping Phoenix avoid a 3-1 series hole and third straight loss for only the second time this season.
Booker and Jae Crowder each scored 17 points, Ayton posted 14 points and a game-high 17 rebounds while Payne and Bridges added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Trailing by as many as 11 in the first half, Phoenix led 54-50 at halftime as Davis injured his left groin on a drive late in the half.
Davis, who scored 34 points in both Game 2 and Game 3 that ended in Lakers’ wins, came into Game 4 with a left knee sprain he suffered in Game 3.
“He’s one of the best players in the world so you have to adjust,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel. “I thought we gave great effort to overcome that loss, but it certainly wasn’t enough.”
Vogel found out during the third Davis wouldn’t return.
With Davis out, the Suns outscored the Lakers, 27-15, in the third in building a 16-point lead. Los Angeles shot 3-of-16 in the quarter, going 0-of-7 from 3.
The Lakers responded by cutting Phoenix’s lead to seven late in the fourth, and a chance to draw within five, but Dennis Schroder missed a layup with 1:31 left.
“If DS makes that layup, which he’s 99% of making a layup right there in front of the rim, he misses it,” James said. “That kind of let the sails out of us.”
Crowder answered with his third 3 of the game to put the Suns back up double figures, 98-88, with 1:23 left.
“I’ve been here before,” said Crowder, who was ejected near the end of Game 3 and entered Game 4 shooting 2-of-20 from 3. He shot 3-of-8 from deep Sunday. “I’ve been in slumps before and I just stay even keel.”
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Getting even: Phoenix Suns knot series with Game 4 win over Los Angeles Lakers