Clippers may win Game 5, but this series is over
Los Angeles has been in every single game they have played in this series, but at the end of the day, it would take a miracle for them to come back and win this Western Conference Finals series. The Clippers cannot win a championship without Kawhi Leonard and as a result, they are not going to be able to advance to their first ever NBA Finals.
Right now, the Phoenix Suns are playing arguably the best basketball out of any team left in these playoffs and with everybody on their team healthy, it is hard to see them falling apart in this series. They are dinged up, as Chris Paul recently returned from health and safety protocols, Devin Booker has a broken nose and DeAndre Ayton has been taking a beating in the paint, but they still have everyone out there on the court.
Phoenix has lost three consecutive games just once all year long and two of these games in this three-game losing skid were lost in overtime. Not to mention, Devin Booker missed two of these three games during this losing streak early on during this season.
It is definitely possible that the Clippers go to Phoenix for Game 5 and pull off the upset, possibly creating some momentum for themselves, but ultimately, they just do not have enough firepower offensively to get past the Suns.
Looking at Game 4 specifically, they played great defense and held the Suns to a season-low 84 points, but Booker, Ayton and Paul were all still productive for them offensively. Jae Crowder and Mikal Bridges only had 9 combined points on 4-14 shooting, which benefited the Clippers, but they made up for it defensively and grabbed 20 combined rebounds.
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The Phoenix Suns have so many ways that they can beat their opponents and given how well they match up with the Clippers in this series, especially without Kawhi, it is hard to see Paul George and Co. being able to rattled off three remarkable victories. If the Suns were to lose, this would right up there with the Warriors 2016 NBA Finals collapse against the Cavaliers for being the biggest postseason collapse in NBA history.
One game separates the Suns from making franchise history and they are five games away from winning their first title in team history. It is hard to see the Clippers at this point coming in the way of them reaching the NBA Finals, which is why this series is practically over at this point.
