Suns reach the NBA Finals – first time in nearly three decades!

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The Phoenix Suns defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in five games of the Western Conference Finals to advance to the 2021 NBA Finals.

The last time the Phoenix Suns made it to the NBA Finals was in 1993 when they faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls beat Charles Barkley and the Suns in six games to win their third championship in a row.

In 2020, the Suns finished tenth in the Western Conference which took them out of the NBA playoffs, but they ended the regular season beautifully by winning their last eight games. These games were played in the bubble the NBA created due to COVID-19. This young core raised their confidence tremendously after the bubble and kept it going! The front office knew it was time to make serious moves for the next season to take advantage of the talents of Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.

Phoenix arranged a huge off-season package trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder that included receiving Chris Paul. Paul is an 11x All-Star, 4x assist leading champ, 10x All-NBA, and 2005-06 NBA Rookie of the Year, He is exceptionally great as a basketball player, teammate, and leader.

Did Chris Paul turn this Phoenix team into a championship-winning squad?

Chris Paul has been on three different teams in the past four years and now Phoenix is his fourth team in five years. He has been criticized throughout his whole career due to the fact that he could not take any of his teams to the promised land, but he has done things that other point guards in the history of the NBA just wish about doing. He is fifth all-time in the categories of assists and steals. He is an enormous impact on the court whether people see it or not.

After finishing 2020 in tenth place, the Suns started the 2020-21 NBA regular season with a mindset of not letting down with Chris Paul leading the pack. With Paul’s superb IQ on both sides of the ball, he helped Phoenix change its’ whole look. They ended the season ranking seventh in the league in points per game with 115.3 while still ranking seventh in the NBA holding opponents under 110 points per game so, they were in the top ten in both offense and defense. They were a complete team this season.

Phoenix has not made the playoffs since 2010 when they won 54 games which is the last time the Suns had more than 50+ win games. This year they won 51 games.

In the three years that Deandre Ayton has been in the NBA, this season was the best field goal completion for him with 63%. Ayton has run the pick & roll with Chris Paul close to perfection and even he knows it. Ayton mentioned this in a post-game interview after Game 4 of the Suns/Clippers series “I love CP man. Like I said. That is really the only teammate that really PUSHED me like big bro type push knowing what I got that I never thought that I had. I think he was the best thing that happened to my career. You know? I can say that every day. C is really a dude who pays attention to detail.” Ayton is now showing everyone why he was picked number one in the draft a few years back with the help of a point god next to him.

Getting into the NBA Finals is just the beginning for this Phoenix squad. They intend to raise a championship banner for their city after this post-season is over with. If they manage to play the same way they have throughout this whole playoffs; there is no team that can stop them from spraying champagne in their locker room or in their opponents’ locker room.