On June 27, Beijing time, in a just-concluded NBA Western Conference Final, the Suns narrowly defeated the Clippers 84-80 on the road, rewriting the series total score to 3-1, and Chris Paul was only one step away from touching the finals floor.
The two sides played a defensive battle in this game, and the two teams only shot a total of nine three-pointers, which seemed to take us back to the 90s. The Clippers' overall offensive ability has indeed been greatly affected by Leonard's still inability to play, because it is enough to block Paul George and Reggie Jackson. Suns coach Monty Williams clearly did his homework before the game, and Pepper finally shot 5-of-20 under pressure, with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 6 assists. And Reggie didn't get any better, with only 20 points and five rebounds on 8-of-24 shooting.
It is worth mentioning that the referee's blow penalty still caused a lot of controversy today, because the 5 players who started the Suns actually received a total of 21 fouls, with an average of at least 4 fouls per person, of which Devin Booker was sent out in the final decisive moment.
But the most puzzling thing is the final "penalty shootout", when George did not resist the pressure of two free throws and one shot, the result was that the referee actually blew Saric to grab the rebound foul, and gave Cousins two free throw opportunities, which gave the Clippers a glimmer of life. Unfortunately, in the end, there was a mistake in the second penalty of Kaoshen, and he wanted to deliberately take the penalty and not to grab the second attack, but he did not expect that the ball did not touch the basket at all, resulting in the ball returning to the hands of the Suns.
Faced with such a situation, the Clippers can only take foul tactics, but São Paulo's free throw is too stable to give the opponent a chance, so the Suns have always maintained a 3-point lead. At this time, the Clippers only need to shoot a three-pointer to equalize, but Monty did not give them that opportunity. When laying out defensive tactics, he had already guessed that the Clippers would give George the last chance to attack, so as soon as Pepper received the ball, the Suns immediately fouled him.
What's more exaggerated is that when George grabs the rebound, the Suns will foul him. Anyway, as soon as the ball reaches George's hands, then he must go to the free throw, and Monty's "slash joe tactic" directly hit the Clippers. Why would Monty risk using the tactics that Li Nan had coached at the World Cup? To know that this tactic is rare in the NBA, on the one hand, the players' free throws are accurate, on the other hand, they are afraid of their players' mistakes in the free throws, and on the other hand, it is naturally the world problem "sending a sideline ball".
In the end, The reason why Monty made such a decision was obviously that he particularly trusted Paul's ability to shoot free throws, and the other thing was that he saw that the Clippers had no chance to pause, so he wanted to slowly run out of time. Competitive sports in the end is the king of the defeat, the sun finally won, so Monti was called "tactical master" by the outside world after the game, and the original national team lost to Poland, so Li Nan's guidance became the target of public criticism.
In the end, we still have to show enough respect to the Clippers, who once lost to the Suns by 16 points today, but eventually narrowed the gap to just one goal in the fourth quarter, and they are indeed the most resilient team in the league today.