5 reasons Phoenix Suns can win 2021 NBA championship
4. Suns are learning to close out games
It took a while for them to build that backcourt rapport, but suffice it to say, having Chris Paul and Devin Booker to close out games is quite a nice luxury for this team — and that’s factoring in that Book hasn’t been his typically reliable self in the clutch for most of this season.
On the season, the Suns are 23-12 in games featuring “clutch” minutes, which NBA.com defines as any game where the score is within five points at any point in the last five minutes. That’s the NBA’s fourth-best win percentage in crunch-time games.
However, even that doesn’t speak to how much better the Suns have gotten at closing out games, since they struggled heavily in this area through the first 16 games of the season and dropped to 8-8. Since then, however, the Suns are an NBA-best 19-5 in crunch-time games, with a league-best point differential of plus-2.9.
Having clutch performers like CP3 and Book certainly helps. Paul is tied for seventh in the league in crunch-time scoring with 118 points, but he’s also tied for sixth in clutch assists (22), is shooting 47 percent in those situations and is a plus-18 overall in 142 crunch-time minutes. Since the 8-8 start, he’s been even better, shooting 50 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from deep as a plus-60 in 87 minutes.
Booker hasn’t been as efficient, but he’s still 18th in the NBA in crunch-time points (89) and 13th in assists (17). He’s also made his impact despite only shooting 32.5 percent in the clutch, since he’s a plus-38 overall in his 128 minutes of crunch-time action. The Suns have found their groove, with Booker taking charge for most of the game and CP3 taking over late when the need arises. After struggling earlier in the season, Book-CP3 lineups now boast a 9.4 Net Rating since the 8-8 start.
Having not one, but two reliable scorers who can get buckets when offense breaks down is a luxury in a playoff series, especially when they can both get to their spots in the mid-range. Throw in Mikal Bridges’ penchant for knocking down big corner 3s when defenses pay too much attention to Phoenix’s star guards, and you’ve got a recipe for success down the stretch.