LOS ANGELES: Devin Booker scored 25 points before fouling out in the final minute, Chris Paul made clutch free throws on a night everyone was missing, and the Phoenix Suns escaped with an 84-80 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
The Suns can advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993 with a victory Monday night in Phoenix.
The Clippers struggled with poor shooting in all but the third quarter, when they made 10 of 17 shots to pull within three points. They got within one four times in the fourth, but could never take the lead in front of a sellout crowd of 18,222 that hung on every agonizing miss.
“It was a crazy, emotional game,” Paul said.
LA shot 32 percent (27 of 83) for the game; Phoenix was barely better at 36 percent (31 of 86). The Clippers made five 3-pointers in the game; the Suns hit four.
“That was a slugfest,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “It wasn’t Offense 101, for sure.”
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, “We had a chance to take the lead on 12 possessions and couldn’t do it. It just wouldn’t fall for us.”
Deandre Ayton added 19 points and a career playoff-high 22 rebounds, and Paul had 18 points and seven assists.
Paul George had 23 points, 16 rebounds and six assists before fouling out with 1 second left. Reggie Jackson added 20 points for the Clippers. Ivica Zubac had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
The Clippers successfully challenged a call in the final minute that led to Booker’s sixth foul. Terance Mann scored and they trailed 79-76.
The final 13 seconds turned into a free-throw shooting contest, with the Suns fouling to try to keep the Clippers off the 3-point line. Paul made 5 of 6. The Clippers were 4 of 8, deliberately missing three of them to try to score. But it didn’t work.
With injured Kawhi Leonard again watching from a suite, the Clippers outscored the Suns 30-19 in the third.
Both teams’ offense collapsed in the fourth, when the Suns outscored the Clippers 15-14.
Booker picked up his fourth foul early in the fourth, along with a technical for arguing the call. That put George at the line and he made 2 of 3, missing the last one that would have tied the game for the first time. Instead, the Clippers trailed 71-70.
It stayed that way for minutes, with both teams going ice cold.
“At that point, you’re just relying on your defense and mental stamina,” Williams said.
Paul tossed up an alley-oop pass that Ayton slammed and Booker hit a jumper, keeping the Suns ahead 75-72.
Maddeningly, shots either rimmed out for both teams or hit the rim and bounced away, creating frantic scrambles for loose balls.
“It was a skirmish under the basket with the ball bouncing all over the place,” Williams said.
Paul ran off seven straight points early in the third, dropping his former team into a 13-point hole.
But the Clippers outscored the Suns 20-10 from there and trailed 69-66 heading into the fourth. Phoenix went without a field goal over the final few minutes of the third, when Booker made 4 of 6 free throws.
The Clippers shot 13 of 44 in the first half. None of them could get it going: George and Jackson were 3 of 11 and Marcus Morris was 1 of 6.
Phoenix raced to leads of 14-2 and 20-9 in the first quarter. The Clippers made just one of their first seven shots — a dunk by Zubac. Seven of George’s 11 points in the half came on a 3-pointer and four free throws.
Booker picked up three fouls in the first half, two of them within minutes of each other in the second quarter. At that point, the Suns were up by 16.