With five and a half minutes left in the second quarter on Tuesday night, it looked like Kevin Durant’s experience was in danger of becoming a bust.
The Phoenix Suns trailed the Los Angeles Clippers by 13 points at home and looked set to lose two games to none in the opening round of the playoffs. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was hitting shots from all over, and Russell Westbrook was rebounding from a 3-for-19 shooting performance in Game 1.
But since then, the new-look Suns have looked the way they were meant to look when Durant was acquired in a deal with the Nets in February. They tied the score in the first half. They led by 10 minutes in the third quarter. They continued the series with a 123-109 win.
Devin Booker led the Phoenix with 38 points, Durant scored 25 and Chris Paul scored 16.
The big difference in Game Two was Phoenix’s shooting. The Suns shot 58.8 percent from the field and 41.7 percent on their three-pointers, big improvements from 47.6 percent and 31.6 percent in Game 1.
The Suns got particularly hot of late when the Clippers threatened to sneak back into the game. With three minutes remaining and the Clippers within 6 minutes, Paul took a fading mid-range guard with plenty of time on the shot clock. It didn’t look like the kind of shot that coach Monty Williams or the home fans might have picked, but it was the night that shot came in.
The Suns are a team that especially needs a championship. The franchise joined the NBA in the 1968-1969 season and reached the Finals three times: in 1976 with Paul Westphal and Alvan Adams, in 1993 with Charles Barkley, and two seasons ago with Booker and Paul. But Phoenix lost all three times it played for the title.
To take the next step, the team added Durant, and the move seemed to work as the Suns were 8-0 when he played the regular season (he missed 18 more games, mostly due to an ankle injury). Although the Suns were only down from four seeds, they became an outstanding selection to win the title, and remained the third favorite among most odds-makers, behind only the Celtics and Bucks of the East.
But after losing Game 1 against the Clippers at home, Game 2 became a must-win. So far, the best of the seven series are tied up and headed to Los Angeles.
Williams admitted that Still carefulLeonard, in particular, who had 31 points in game two, said, “Anytime you can get the ball in the hands of your best player, and make room really well on the ground, it allows you to be more efficient.” “That’s what they do with Kawhi. He gets on target” — in the center of the free-throw line — “It’s a tough place to double-team.”