The Phoenix Suns completed a dominant sweep of the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, winning Game 4 125-118 to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2010.
Suns fans have made up one of the rowdier home crowds of these playoffs, so it's no surprise they were ready to welcome the team back to Phoenix overnight after the game. Suns center Deandre Ayton was absolutely loving the madness:
This is the first playoff run for Ayton and several other key Suns players, including starters Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges, and they're soaking this all in and enjoying every second of it. The sheer joy Ayton is showing here is awesome to see.
The young big man is having a coming-out party during these playoffs. Ayton was dominant in the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers and then held his own against MVP Nikola Jokic in this sweep. The 22-year-old is no Luka Doncic, but he's showing why he was deserving of being a No. 1 pick. The Suns are certainly happy to have him manning the middle, and he should be a key player for the franchise for a long, long time.
Ayton and the Suns will now get plenty of time to rest ahead of the Western Conference Finals. In the other series, the Utah Jazz are up 2-1 on the Los Angeles Clippers. It looks like that could be a battle that goes the distance, which would give Phoenix lots of time to prepare for the next round.
We can probably expect these guys to have a bit of fun as well as they embrace this deep playoff run.