Nearly three decades ago, the Phoenix Suns acquired a now Hall of Famer who they hoped could lead them to their first NBA title inf franchise history. They made it to The Finals but lost to a team that would go on to complete the first of two three-peats. In the summer of 2020, the Suns again acquired a future Hall of Fame who they hoped could just get them back to the Playoffs let alone the championship round. They finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference, took down last season’s Western Conference Finalists in the first two rounds and then took down L.A.’s other squad making their Western Conference Finals debut. They were halfway to winning their first title in franchise history but like the two previous Suns squads that reached The Finals had their championship dreams ended with a thud on Tuesday night to the Eastern Conference representative in 2021 Finals.
After coming back from a double-digit
deficit in the first quarter of Game 6 of The Finals to tie the score 77-77
after three quarters, the Suns were outscored 28-21 in the four quarter and
fell at the Milwaukee Bucks 105-98 to lose the series and the NBA championship
4-2.
This was the Suns third appearance in The
Finals (1976, 1993, and 2021), their first since 1993, where the Charles
Barkley led Suns lost to fellow Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and the Chicago
Bulls also in six games.
The Suns trailed in Game 6 29-16 after the
first quarter but outscored the Bucks 31-13 in the second quarter to lead 47-42
at half. Bucks then outscored the Suns 35-30 in the third quarter with the
eventually named Bill Russell Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo scoring 20 of
his playoff career-high 50 points in the third quarter to tie things up 77-77
after three quarters.
With the score tied 82-82 early in the
fourth period, the Bucks assumed control outscoring the Suns 23-16 to close the
period to win their second title in franchise history, their first since 1971,
where they took down the then Baltimore Bullets (now Washington Wizards) in a
four-game sweep led by Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was named Finals
MVP after winning Kia MVP in his third NBA season.
It was a tough way for the Suns season to
end as they suffered their first four-game losing streak of this season
(regular season and playoffs). They went 4-6 their last 10 playoff games after
winning a franchise record nine consecutive playoffs games from Game 4 of the
opening-round at the Lakers to Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals at the
Clippers.
The Suns becoming the first team since the 2006 Dallas Mavericks to lose four consecutive games in The Finals after winning the first two games at home.
“There’s just a pain that goes with your
season being over,” Suns head coach Monty Williams, in his second season as the
team’s sideline leader said in his postgame presser.
“I think it’s going to take me a minute. I
just don’t take it for granted. It’s hard to get here and I wanted it so bad.
It’s hard to process right now. But I’ve never dealt with this and so I’m
grateful, like I said, but I know this is going to hurt for a while.”
Even after a painful defeat, Coach
Williams in a show a great sportsmanship went to Bucks locker room to
congratulate them on winning their second title in franchise history saying to
them, “I just wanted to come and congratulate you guys as a man and a coach.
You guys deserve it, and I’m thankful for the experience. You guys made me a
better coach. You made us a better team. Congratulations.”
No one on the Suns hurts more from this
loss than future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, who the Suns acquired in hopes of
making it back to the Playoffs after a 10-year absence, which was the second
longest playoff drought in the NBA behind the 15 straight of the Sacramento
Kings.
In their first postseason appearance since
2010, the Suns took down the current
defending NBA champion Lakers led by four-time Finals MVP and four-time NBA
champion LeBron James and fellow perennial All-Star Anthony Davis in six games
in the opening-round. They proceeded in the West Semis to sweep the other 2020
West Finals participant in the Denver Nuggets 4-0. In the West Finals the Suns
defeated the so-called little brother of the Lakers in the Los Angeles
Clippers, Paul’s former team that he played from 2011-2017 in six games to
reach the NBA Finals for the first time in 28 years.
The Suns were halfway to their first title
in franchise history before dropping Games 3 and 4 at the Bucks Then lost a
heartbreaking 123-119 last Saturday night to fall 3-2. Then they had another
fourth quarter collapse in Game 6 to lose the series in six games.
Paul who had 26 points and nine assists on
11 for 19 from the field was making his first Finals appearance in his 16th
NBA season became the first player to lose four best-of-seven series where his
team led 2-0 to start.
Since scoring 32 points with nine assists
and no turnovers in 118-105 win in Game 1 of The Finals, Paul’s scoring
previous to what he did in Game 6 was 23, 19, and 10 points in Games 2, 3, and
4. Game 4 was the hardest one to take because Paul was just 5 for 13 shooting
and committed five turnovers, including a crucial one late in, the fourth
quarter that led to a Bucks score that created some major separation from the
Suns.
To put that moment into context, Paul in Games, 2, 3, and 4 had registered a total of 15 turnovers, his most in a three-game stretch in his playoff career since 2012. He had averaged counting the Game 6 clincher of the West Finals at the Clippers and Game 1 of The Finals versus Bucks, Paul averaged 36.5 points, 8.5 assists on 65 percent from the field and just one turnover. Games 2, 3, and 4 of the Finals Paul averaged 17.3 points and eight assists on a solid 49 percent from the field but averaged five turnovers.
While Paul played much better in Game 5
scoring 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter with 11 assists and just one
turnover, he committed a late foul on Bucks’ Antetokounmpo on a completed
alley-oop dunk off a turnover by Booker off a steal by Bucks’ Jrue Holiday in
the final 20 seconds of regulation that put the Bucks up 122-119. Antetokounmpo
missed the free throw but Bucks’ Khris Middleton secured the rebound and after
getting fouled split a pair of free throws that put the game away.
That was loss was the Suns first this
postseason in 14 games where they led by double-digits as they led by as many
as 16 in Game 5.
“You just trying to figure our what you
could’ve done more, you know,” Paul said in his postgame presser after the Game
6 loss. “It’s tough. “They (Bucks) made timely shots. We didn’t. We didn’t get
stops when we needed to, and they just beat us.”
As instrumental as Paul was in getting the
Suns in position to being NBA champions, the play of Devin Booker and Deandre
Ayton, who were making their playoff debuts in their sixth and third NBA
seasons respectably played at a level as if they had been here before.
Booker the last two games had scored 42
and 40 points in Games 4 and 5 respectably, which were also his 3rd
and 4th games scoring 40 or more this postseason. Only Hall of Famer
Rick Barry had more 40-point Games in his first postseason back in 1967 with
the then San Francisco Warriors (now Golden State Warriors) than the four such
games by Booker.
In fact, Booker finished with the most
total points of any player in NBA history making their postseason debut with
601 points.
Most Total Points In First NBA Postseason
Run
Devin Booker: 601 points
Rick Barry: 521 points
Trae Young (ATL): 461 points
Maurice Lucas: 403 points
Carlos Boozer: 400 points
LeBron James (LAL): 400 points
Paul Pierce: 394 points
Richard Hamilton: 383 points
Boris Diaw: 371 points
In Game 6 where the Suns for the first
time faced elimination in the 2021 Playoffs, Booker had just 19 points on 8 for
22 shooting, including 0 for 7 from three-point range.
Booker in his postgame presser said that
the locker room was “silent” after the loss that ended their season.
“It’s a long season. We went through a
lot,” Booker added. “All of us wanted it. All of us wanted it.”
In looking back in how the Suns lost this
series, their inability to take care of the basketball. Their inability to keep
the Bucks from scoring in the paint especially Antetokounmpo. Their inability
to make three-pointers at a high clip, and how the Bucks Holiday and Middleton
outplayed Paul and Booker the last four games of the series.
In the losses in Games 3 (120-100) and 4
(109-103) at the Bucks, the Suns totaled 32 turnovers, shot 29.6 percent (16
for 54) from three-point range, were outscored in the paint 102-80 and 31-6 in
fast break points.
While the Suns took much better care of
the ball in Game 5 with just nine turnovers and outscored the Bucks 52-46 in
the paint, the Bucks scored 16 points off those Suns miscues, and outscored
them 21-12 in fast break points, and while the Suns went 13 for 19 from
three-point range, the Bucks shot 14 for 28 from three-point line.
In Game 6, the Suns struggled from
three-point range going 6 for 25. The Bucks went to the foul line more and made
more free throws going 25 for 29 from the charity stripe, led by the 17 for 19
by Antetokounmpo and the Suns went 16 for 19 from the foul line.
The Suns inability to control the paint to
close the series circled around Ayton’s inability to match the intensity and
focus that Antetokounmpo had.
After shooting at least 50 percent from
the field or better in every game of the first three rounds of the 2021
Playoffs, Ayton had 4 for 10, 3 for 9, and 4 for 12 shooting games in The
Finals. Scoring 22, 10 and 18 points in the first three games of The Finals,
Ayton finished The Finals with games of six, 20, and 12 points to closeout the
series. After registering double figure rebounds in four of the first five
games of this series (19, 11, nine, 17, and 10 boards), Ayton only registered
six boards in Game 6.
For most teams that accomplished what the
Suns did winning 52 games in the regular season, their first 50-win season
since 2010 and winning their first Pacific Division title since 2007. Paul was
in the running for Kia MVP. Coach Williams finished second to Tom Thibodeau of
New York Knicks for Kia Coach of the Year, and General Manager James Jones on
NBA Executive of the Year. Making the playoffs for the first time in a decade
and reaching The Finals for first time in 28 seasons would be a cause for celebration.
This Suns group though to a man, there is no such thing as moral victories, and while they acknowledge that what they did was special it does not take the sting out of the fact that they had a serious chance of holding their first Larry O’Brien trophy in their 53-year history and they let it slip away.
“That’s our team. That’s been the name of
our team this whole season. We’re an emotional group,” Booker said. “We fight
hard. We practice hard. We have a lot of fun together and we trust each other,
and we love each other and we say that all the time. So, we had a common goal
in bringing a championship back to Phoenix, and it’s tough to fall short.”
Paul concurred by saying about reaching
The Finals for the first time in his aforementioned 16-year career and not
winning it basically means getting “back to work” and trying to get back in the
same position next season and having a different outcome.
“Ain’t no moral victories or what not,”
Paul said. “We saw what it takes to get there, and hopefully we see wat it
takes to get past that.”
“We grew all season long, especially
starting out the way we did. Nobody probably expected us to be where we are,
accept for us, you know. It is what it is. Like I said all season long with our
team there ain’t moral victories.”
While Paul and the Suns might get back to
work in terms of getting better, there is the matter of Paul and his $44.2
million player option that has to be settled this offseason.
Deciding whether he will opt into the
final year of his current deal or decline it and become an unrestricted free
agent will be something to watch because considering how he has shown in this
past season with the Suns and the previous season with the Oklahoma City
Thunder that there is plenty of gas left in his tank and a desire to win a
title that maybe he could want to play elsewhere like with the Lakers and his
longtime friend in James.
“It’ll take a while to process this or
what not,” Paul said. “But it’s the same mentality. Get back to work. I ain’t
retiring. That’s out. Back to work.”
Whether Paul does win that elusive title
or not, to Booker his career resume speaks for itself and thinking that Paul
needs a title to solidify his career is to all the true basketball fans is
“complete nonsense.”
“He [Paul] led us this whole season, and
this is our first year together,” Booker said of his backcourt teammate. “So
now, just developing a relationship. Developing the trust amongst each other
throughout the whole season, you know. For it to fall short like this is tough
on all of us.”
Nearly three decades ago, the Phoenix Suns
acquired a then soon to be future Hall of Famer in Charles Barkley in the hopes
that he was the final piece of their journey to being NBA champions. They came
awfully close but lost to as mentioned fellow Hall of Fame Michael Jordan and
the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 Finals in six games.
The Suns back I November 2020 acquired future Hall of Famer Chris Paul in hopes of doing what they could not 28 years ago. They got halfway there winning Games 1 and 2 of 2021 Finals but lost the next four games and saw the Milwaukee Bucks win the title instead of them.
Longest Active NBA Title Droughts
Sacramento Kings: 69 seasons
Atlanta Hawks: 63 seasons
Phoenix Suns: 53 seasons (never won a title
in franchise history)
Los Angeles Clippers: 51 seasons (never
won a title in franchise history)
Milwaukee Bucks: 49 seasons (won their
first title since 1971 in their third Finals trip)
The Barkley led Suns never made it back to
The Finals falling the next three seasons to the eventual NBA champions in the
Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995 and fell in the opening-round of the 1996
Playoffs to the San Antonio Spurs.
A big part in whether or not the Suns will
get another legitimate crack at winning a title will depend on whether Paul
opts in to his previously mentioned $44.2 million player option or wants to
decline it and move on, which is highly unlikely. Then there is the possibility
he could ask to be traded to a contender like the Lakers and finally team up
with his good friend in the aforementioned James.
The other part of the Suns chances of
making it back to The Finals is how the rest of the Western Conference improves
next season. All three teams the Suns took down in their run to the title round
in the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers had their star players out or hampered
because of injury in James and Anthony Davis for the Lakers; Jamal Murray for
the Nuggets; and two-time Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard for the Clippers.
While there will be a lot of factors that
determine whether or not the Suns get another shot at winning a title moving
forward, they feel that they have the foundation and culture in place to give
themselves a shot at winning their first Larry O’Brien trophy sooner rather
than later.
“We said the whole season we’re trying to
win big, and we fell short of that. But like I said we have a foundation. We
have a base for us to learn from,” Booker said. “An experience for us to learn
from, and there is no moral victories in our locker room….We want to win a
championship.”
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