On December 14, Beijing time, the NBA regular season, the Suns, which ranked first in the league, visited the Home of the Clippers. The Clippers' two main players, Leonard and Paul George, continued to be absent due to injury in this game. On the Suns side, Booker and Ayton will also not play, and Paul will lead the team alone.
The game began with the Suns' offensive feel bad, relying on Only Two Points from Crowder in the first half of the first quarter. The Clippers took advantage of the momentum to take the initiative on the court and achieved a double-digit lead. Although the Suns gradually found the rhythm of the attack after that, they were still in a state of inferiority to their opponents at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and were pressed by the Clippers. The Suns trailed the Clippers 44-56 at halftime.
Entering the second half, the Clippers once again relied on sharp offense, at one point extending the lead to 17 points. Despite the Suns' show of tenacity, they scored consecutive points, narrowing the gap to eight points at one point in the fourth quarter. But Reggie stepped forward and led the Clippers players to achieve multi-point blossoming and re-widen the point gap. The Clippers took a 21-point lead in the final quarter and held it until the end of the game. In the end, the Sun faced a fiasco against the Clippers without Pepper.
The Suns' defeat to the Clippers still broke out a lot of cold, after all, they had won a 20-point victory at home without Booker and Ayton. The main reason why the Suns lost this game was because the team's outside feel was not good, the team only hit 7 of the 29 three-point shots, and two of them still appeared in garbage time. That's a far cry from their season average of 11.4 three-pointers and 36.9 percent three-point shooting per game.
As the team's single core for this game, Paul did not play his due leadership value today. He had 4-of-14, 2-of-2 three-pointers and 1-of-2 free throw line with 9 points, 8 assists and 3 steals. Paul did not show too much offensive desire in this game, and fell into the rhythm of his opponents in organizational work. In the second half, he lost all 6 shots and did not score any points. This also laid the groundwork for the team's fiasco against their opponents.
With the Suns losing to the Clippers, the team's record reached 21-5, and the record was surpassed by the Warriors with 22 wins and 5 losses. Although the two sides have a record of 1 win and 1 draw this season, because the Warriors and the Suns are in the same division, the Warriors have a better record against opponents in the same division. So after this game, the Warriors returned to the top of the record list and led the league. The warriors' next showdown with the Suns will take place in a Christmas battle, when the two sides will compete for the third time of the season.
According to the schedule, the Suns will challenge the Blazers back-to-back on the road tomorrow. They will then return to the home court, facing the Wizards and Hornets in succession. The team's core interior Ayton is expected to make a comeback after the team returns home.
(Text/Yuwen Basketball)