The Western Conference semifinals ushered in the battle between the Suns and the Lone Ranger G2. In the first game between the two sides, although Doncic personally contributed 45 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists, the team relied too much on him, and also let the 5-man sun finally rely on the whole team to play 121-114 to laugh at the end, the lone ranger fell behind the sun 0-1 in the big score. Therefore, in the second showdown between the two sides, the Lone Ranger needs to rely on Doncic to attract the opposing defense, give more players in other positions the opportunity to improve their scoring data, and strive to play more holistically, while the Suns need to play steadily, while more people can stand up when the team encounters difficulties, so that the team can rely on the team to win again in the last moments. On the starting front, the Suns sent the starting 5 Tigers of Paul, Booker, Bridges, Crowder and Ayton, while the Lone Rangers put Doncic, Brunson, Smith, Bullock and Powell in the starting lineup.
In the first quarter of the game, the Suns took the lead, from Bridges' mid-range plus outside three-pointers, to Ayton's dunks and dry shots, under Paul's needle-cutting line they made a perfect start of 9-0, Booker then played 12+1 and had a beautiful breakthrough layup, the game went on for 4 minutes, the Suns have taken a 14-5 lead. But then the Lone Ranger slowly got into shape, from Bullock's mid-range, to Finnie Smith's rebound, to Doncic's easy pass to Kleber after attracting the bag, and the score came to 11-19. Ayton's small throw once brought the difference between the two sides to 21-11, and the Suns' lead also came to 10 points. But then Doncic took the initiative to stand up again and score consecutive points, both breakthrough layups, three-point hits, and 2+1 success, Dinwiddie's three-pointers and Kleber's dunk, coupled with Doncic's hits, a charge made the two sides 28-30, leaving only a 2-point difference. Shamet's breakthrough layup still set the score at 32-28 in the first quarter, and the Suns led by four points.
The game entered the second quarter of the competition, Crowder came up with a breakthrough layup to help the Suns continue to expand the point difference, Dinwiddie's three points helped the Lone Ranger bite the score, Bertans's 3 points plus Dinwiddie's 2 free throws, allowing the Lone Ranger to erase the difference between the two sides, and the two teams fought to a 38-38 draw. The Lone Ranger then reversed the score and further widened the score difference to 43-38. The Suns' difficult moments were still Crowder's three-pointers, Paul's mid-range helped them chase, and the two teams stood at a 43-43 draw. Then the two teams came and went, and then stood at a 54-54 draw, and in the last moments of the first half, Paul's mid-range small throw made the score to 58-60. At half-time, the Suns trailed by two points. In the second quarter of a single quarter, the Lone Ranger hit the Suns a 32-26. Throughout the first half, although the Suns only Hadcer scored in double figures, contributing 15 points and 4 rebounds, Paul also had 8 points and 3 assists, and Ayton and Booker each contributed 9 points, and the Suns still maintained their team style. On the lone ranger side, Doncic once again became the first scoring point on the court, contributing 24 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists, and Dinwiddie, who came off the bench, also scored 10 points.
The game entered the second half of the scramble, Booker first hit a three-point shot to help the Suns 61-60 to win the score, followed by his three-point shot, and turned over to help the Suns further extend the lead to 66-62. Paul's ball-holding breakthrough was also unhesitating, and McGee's smashing dunk helped the Suns further widen the point difference to 72-66. With 6 minutes and 38 seconds left in the section, the Lone Ranger was forced to call a timeout. However, it was the Suns who scored first when he came back from the timeout, mcGee's second shot from the basket helped the Suns pull the score further to 74-66, and he gave Dinwiddie a big hat in the subsequent defense. He then assisted Bridges to stabilize the gap between the two sides at 76-68. However, McGee, who was playing a little excited, then made a mistake and pushed Kléber away, giving the opponent a chance to play 3+1. The difference between the two teams was forced to close to 72-76. Bullock's three-point shot further narrowed the gap to 75-76 with just one point. With Bullock's three-point shots the two teams drew 78-78. The suns played more steadily when the two sides formed a tug-of-war, and Booker's turn jumper combined with his long-range three-pointer helped the Suns 89-84, leading by five points to end the third quarter battle between the two sides.
In the fourth quarter of the decisive victory, Jaylen Brunson began with a 3-point approach to the difference between the two sides, and Paul responded with a three-point shot without a sound. Doncic had just thrown a three-pointer, and Paul went on to hit a rebound, and the difference between the two teams was 97-88. Paul shook off Bullock's dashing throw and rewrote the score to 103-93, widening the gap between the two sides to 10 points again, just four minutes after the fourth quarter, and the Lone Ranger had to call a timeout to adjust. But the timeout came back, Johnson continued to widen the gap between the two sides with the mid-range, Paul's small throw not only hit, but also created a foul on the opponent's batter to get a 2+1 chance to play, and Biyombo also used the basket to help the Suns play an offensive climax, and the score between the two sides was further extended to 110-93. Booker's two consecutive decisive three-point shots left the two sides with less than five minutes to go before the game, the point difference had reached 116-95, as many as 21 points, and the game was also an early loss of suspense. Time ran out little by little, and the Suns finally played a single quarter 40-26 and won the G2 battle between the two sides with a score of 129-109. Thus taking a 2-0 lead over the Lone Rangers and taking another big step towards the Western Conference Finals. Congratulations to the sun.
Finally, let's look at the statistics of both sides: the Lone Ranger side has only 3 people in double-figures, Doncic contributed a game-high 35 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, Bullock also scored 16 points, and Dinwiddie contributed 11 points. On the Suns side, it was 4 people in double-doubles, of which Paul contributed 28 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, shooting 11 of 16 from the field, Booker also had 30 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, three-point shooting rate as high as 8 shots and 5, Crowder had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, including 3 of 5 three-pointers, and Bridges had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists.