Phoenix Suns Headed to First N.B.A. Finals in Almost 30 Years

“Don’t lose mission,” Paul said in a postgame television interview, explaining his determination to put the Clippers away and avoid a Game 7.

The Suns were one of just two teams during a shortened 72-game regular season, along with Utah, to win 50 games. They validated that success, in many respects, by eliminating the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the first round, and followed that with a four-game sweep of the Denver Nuggets. Phoenix had carried the league’s second-longest playoff drought into the season, dating to the Suns’ trip to the conference finals in 2010. Only Sacramento’s drought, now 15 seasons and counting, was longer.

Yet skeptics continue to point out that the Suns have faced short-handed opponents in each round of the playoffs. The Lakers’ Anthony Davis missed the final two and a half games of the teams’ first-round series because of a groin injury; Denver’s Jamal Murray had a season-ending knee injury in April; and Leonard did not play in the conference finals after spraining his right knee in the second round against Utah.

The Suns, though, overcame their own burst of adversity against the Clippers when Paul, their veteran floor leader, missed the first two games because of the league’s coronavirus health and safety protocols. Phoenix managed to win both games without Paul and also overcame a broken nose sustained by Booker in Game 2.

Paul, 36, is with his fifth team. In 15 previous seasons, he had reached the conference finals only once, with the Houston Rockets, and was sidelined for Houston’s crucial Games 6 and 7 with a hamstring injury. The Rockets had taken a 3-2 series lead over the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the 2018 West finals but lost both games without Paul.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/sports/basketball/nba-phoenix-suns-finals.html