For all of Phoenix's scorching shooting Tuesday, the kind of offense the Suns dreamed about upon acquiring Kevin Durant in February, it had left them ahead by just six points with 3:13 to play in the second game of this first-round playoff series.
Somehow, the Clippers had not been done in by Phoenix's offensive brilliance.
Instead, they lost their chance to take control of this series through their own mistakes.
The next five Clippers possessions ended in five missed opportunities. Two consecutive turnovers by Russell Westbrook. A turnover by Eric Gordon. A missed shot by Kawhi Leonard — and 11 seconds later, a Leonard travel.
Here come the Suns, a 123-109 victory that kept the Clippers from claiming what would have been their first 2-0 series lead since 2016.
Suns guard Devin Booker scored 18 of his 38 points in the third quarter, and when he was not making shots on a night Phoenix shot 58% from the field, Durant was, adding 25 points. Both were responsible for the Suns' mastery in an area few teams venture into anymore, making 32 of their 50 mid-range shots.
The Clippers attempted to offset that by taking 16 more shots, but outside of Leonard's 31 points, their complementary players struggled to make shots.
Russell Westbrook scored 28 points, making nine of 16 shots, but the rest of the team made 15 of their 44 shots.
Game 3 of this tied series is Thursday in Los Angeles.
If losing a series opener for the first time since 2010 felt ominous for Phoenix, so did the arrival of official Scott Foster for Game 2. Suns guard Chris Paul had lost 13 consecutive playoff games refereed by Foster entering Tuesday, a one-sided history so well known that fans jeered Foster's pregame introduction with more volume than that of Westbrook.
Phoenix coach Monty Williams adjusted by using Durant in fewer pick-and-rolls, allowing one of basketball's most talented offensive players to operate in isolation and open space. After attempting 15 shots in Game 1, Durant took eight in the first quarter — yet few looks were easy. Westbrook slapped one shot away with force from behind. Left alone to defend Durant at the top of the three-point arc, Leonard ripped away Durant's dribble, then ran downcourt, part of a bravura opening quarter that saw Leonard score eight points, with five assists and four rebounds.
In another adjustment, Williams played Durant the entire first quarter rather than repeat Sunday's gamble of leaving Devin Booker as the only starter on the floor for 90 disastrous seconds late in the opening quarter, when the Suns were outscored by five.
Amid the changes, some things remained the same.
The Clippers led again after one quarter, this time by five. Even with Leonard resting to begin the second, Clippers reserves held firm. A bench unit featuring four guards outplayed a lineup featuring Suns starters Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton by four during the second quarter's opening six minutes, pushing the lead to 10.
Westbrook was a catalyst, finishing the first half with 17 points on six baskets — double his total from Sunday. When Leonard returned from his sideline reboot, he promptly drilled a 3-pointer and scurried baseline for a dunk as boos became audible and the lead grew to 13.
It was all gone within five minutes, the lead unable to withstand Phoenix's 57% shooting to enter halftime tied. When it continued and Phoenix led by 10, it set up the same puzzle the Clippers had solved in the final minutes of Game 1's third quarter: how to respond after taking Phoenix's best second-half punch.
Yet this time when Leonard took a two-minute breather to begin the fourth quarter, the Suns' shooting punished Clippers reserves, pushing their lead to 11 by the time Leonard returned with 9:47 to play.
He was the tallest member of a lineup of five guards and wings — what coach Ty Lue saw as their best chance to match Phoenix's shooting. It made no headway. And neither could the Clippers toward taking control of this series.
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