After being reversed by the Pelicans in the last upset, the Suns pulled back a city in game three of the first round of the playoffs to take a 2-1 lead on aggregate. It was of course veteran Paul who made the first contribution to the Suns, but Ayton also helped the team a lot.
In the 35 minutes of playing time, Ayton had 28 points, 17 rebounds and three steals on 13-of-20 shooting, and had a very good performance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. In the whole game, his plus-minus reached the highest value of +18 in the whole team, which can also explain his value to some extent.
Ayton's performance is very thirst-quenching for the sun. The team's main shooting guard Booker was injured in an accident last game and will be absent for a while, so paul and the Suns need someone to step up and share the pressure for him. In either way, young Ayton should clearly be that option.
In the game, he did. Compared with the past, Ayton is more active on the offensive end, and Ayton, who used to be only passively attacking and eating more cake, broke through with the ball, played back under the basket, and jumped in the middle and long distance... The offensive end was pretty good. Encouraged by Booker's constant "de-scoring" on the sidelines, Ayton has indeed become different, and at the same time, he has proved that he is not just a blue-collar worker, but a center with a lot of offensive means.
Faced with the Pelicans center Valanciunas' defensive strategy under the basket, Ayton repeatedly completed the attack with mid-range shots and throws, and forced the Pelicans to request a timeout. Before Paul took over the game in the final moments, Ayton's preemptive strike helped the Suns a lot. In the first quarter, Ayton had 13 points and 4 rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting. Despite not scoring in the final quarter, Ayton grabbed six rebounds and did well on the defensive end.
For Ayton, this is a great opportunity for him to fight for the top salary, and arguably the last chance. Before the start of the season, Ayton was bent on signing a top-salary contract with the Suns in advance, like Doncic, Trae Young and others, but the Suns did not renew Ayton's contract early.
Now that Booker could be out of the way for 2-3 weeks with injury, it doesn't look easy for the Suns to weed out the Pelicans. On Paul's side, someone had to step up to fill the gap in Booker's offensive end, and that person was obviously supposed to be Ayton. This time, Ayton proved himself.
If there's a good performance in every game, then Ayton can obviously keep proving himself and can prove himself to the Suns. On the contrary, his dream of a maximum salary is not easy to achieve, as a restricted free agent, if he can't get the approval of the Suns, then he can only wait for other teams to quote, will be active to passive.