The Phoenix Suns pulled out a miracle Game 2 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night, with Jae Crowder throwing an incredible alley-oop on an inbounds pass to Deandre Ayton in the final second. Funny enough, this play was awfully familiar for Suns star Devin Booker and former Suns center Tyson Chandler.
That's because Chandler and the Suns pulled off a similar alley-oop game-winner during a regular-season game back in 2017. See for yourself:
The Suns are familiar with game-winning alley-oops. Throwback to Tyson Chandler pic.twitter.com/CR2PGiBuPL
— Ty Jäger (@TheTyJager) June 23, 2021
Then-coach Jay Triano drew up that play, and Chandler took to Twitter after Ayton's game-winner to talk about his experience and how it's not goaltending:
That looks familiar 👀
— Tyson Chandler (@tysonchandler) June 23, 2021
Shout out to Coach Jay Triano! After practice 1 day he was kickin random NBA facts to me and was like “ did you know theres no goaltending on a out of bounds play?” I was like really?? Nooo he said look it up.. 3 weeks later we found or selves in that situation
— Tyson Chandler (@tysonchandler) June 23, 2021
Booker also reminisced on that play from 2017 in his postgame press conference:
“I’ve seen this movie before!”@DevinBook recalls @tysonchandler going and getting the inbounds pass above the cylinder for the win in 2017.. much like @DeandreAyton did to lift the @Suns in Game 2! #ThatsGame pic.twitter.com/Fxtye7cHeR
— NBA (@NBA) June 23, 2021
It's pretty crazy that the Suns were involved in such similar rare plays nearly four years apart. Of course, Ayton's game-winner was on a much bigger stage, with Phoenix now up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals and just two wins away from its first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.
The execution on this play was simply perfect, from Crowder's pass to Booker's screen to Ayton's perfectly timed leap to put the ball in the basket from right above the cylinder. And, of course, Monty Williams and his coaching staff deserve credit for the call, though they were assisted by a replay review that basically gave them a free timeout. Still, give them kudos for taking advantage.
The Suns know they still have a long way to go here, as the Clippers have already erased this type of deficit twice in these playoffs. However, the looming return of Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard's knee injury have this series feeling a bit different.