The most luxurious teams in the West are the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Suns have Durant, Booker and Beal, all of whom are super scorers of the year, while the Clippers have a Big Four combination of George Jr. and Harden and Harden, and the roster talent is historic. Most of the players on these two teams are working hard for the championship, and although Durant and Leonard have championship trophies, they also urgently need a championship trophy to prove themselves after the trough of these seasons.
In this game, the Clippers ushered in the challenge of the Suns at home, both teams are full of main lineups, Durant vs. Harden Wei Shao, the former Thunder three young reunion, is undoubtedly the biggest highlight of this game, Durant is still one of the best players in the league, Harden and Wei Shao have been going downhill over the years, but they cannot be ignored.
At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, the two teams were quite equal, Durant got 7 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, Booker had 7 points and 1 assist, Beal had 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 2 steals, and the Big Three led the team to 31 points in a single quarter, but the Clippers bombarded 34 points, George scored 10 points and 3 rebounds, Harden did not score, but gave 5 assists, and Wei Shao had 7 points and 3 assists. After returning from the game in the second quarter, Durant continued to exert his strength, scoring 13 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist on 4-of-6 shooting, while Beal scored 6 points, and the team scored another 32 points in a single quarter, but the gap was widening.
Harden exploded, scoring 15 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists on 5-of-66 shooting, and Mann hit two three-pointers, and the team scored 37 points in a single quarter, and at halftime, the Clippers led the Suns by eight points at 71-63. In the second half, the Suns fell into a scoring drought, Vogel directly put out a five-small lineup, Booker scored 9 points and 4 assists, and the team scored 28 points in a single quarter, but only barely bit the score. Zubac dominated the interior, scoring 9 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist on 4-of-5 shooting, and George also had 8 points and 2 rebounds, and the team scored 30 points in a single quarter to successfully take a 10-point lead.
In the final quarter of the game, Durant scored another 7 points and 2 rebounds to help the team stabilize the situation, but who would have thought that the Clippers suddenly had a wave of 13-0 small climaxes everywhere, directly stretching the difference to 20 points, and the game gradually lost suspense. With more than 5 minutes left in the game, the Suns replaced the main lineup, and the game went into garbage time. In the end, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns by 27 points 138-111.
The Los Angeles Clippers won the game and completely defeated the Phoenix Suns, and Harden scored 19 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists on 6-of-8 shooting, which was very efficient, including 15 points in the second quarter, and a plus/minus of +25. It can be seen from here that Harden can still play an extraordinary individual performance as long as he wants to, but the Clippers don't need him to step up now. George had 25 points and seven rebounds, Zubac had 19 points and eight rebounds, Leonard had 17 points, three rebounds and two assists, Mann and Powell both had 14 points and five rebounds, and Westbrook also had nine points, two rebounds and seven assists.
Durant did his best, shooting 10-of-17 from the field, scoring 30 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists, a superstar-level performance, but his teammates around him didn't give enough help, and the team's defense was a mess. Booker shot 8 of 14, 20 points and 5 assists, and Beal shot 7 of 15, got 15 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. For the Suns, they must return to defense, and without defense, they are destined to not be able to establish themselves in the West, which is full of strong teams.