3 things the Suns need to fix to win Game 4 vs. Clippers

1. The Suns need to space the floor better by making their mid-range jumpers

Let’s be real. To win on the road in any playoff series is very difficult, much less in the conference finals. For any team to be able to realistically do that, the star players have to shine the brightest. Unfortunately for the Suns, both starting guards in Devin Booker and Chris Paul had miserable shooting nights. Yes, Booker wore a Rip Hamilton mask, but he couldn’t hit a thing.

Booker shot 5-for-21 from the floor (23.8 percent) and 1-for-7 from distance (14.3 percent). While he made all four of his free throws, he only finished with a pedestrian 15 points as the Suns’ best player. To make matters worse, Paul wasn’t much better. He shot 5-for-19 from the field (26.3 percent) and only 2-for-7 from 3-point land (28.6 percent). Despite making all three of his free throws, he only finished with 15 points, too.

If we want to factor in their two other guards that played in E’Twaun Moore and Cameron Payne (who left in the first quarter with an ankle injury), none of them shot 30 percent from the floor. While the 3-pointers will come and go, there is plenty of space in the mid-range for this high-octane Suns offense to take advantage of. Doing so will help them shoot better than 38.9 percent from the field as a team. It just comes down to making shots Phoenix normally makes.

Overall, the biggest cause for concern for the Suns wasn’t that they lost, but that they lost by double figures to a team missing its best player. Had Leonard have played, who knows how ugly this Game 3 defeat could have been? The good news for Phoenix is the Suns have home-court advantage in this best-of-seven series. Taking Game 4 on the road can return all their confidence.

If the Suns make these three adjustments, they will go up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals.