Ayton, Suns fall as Lakers win game two

Bahamian professional basketball player DeAndre Ayton posted 22 points and a team-high 10 boards on Tuesday night but it wasn’t enough as the defending champions Los Angeles Lakers took down the Phoenix Suns, 109-102, in the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs at the Phoenix Suns Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Lakers tied the Western Conference first-round series at 1-1, after the Suns took the first game on Sunday.

Playing in just his second playoff game, Ayton was busy once again, going up against a tough Lakers frontcourt. He had his second consecutive efficient night from the field, shooting 11-for-13 from the field in a team-high 42 minutes of play. He now has back-to-back double-doubles in two career playoff games.

Ayton had a slow start with just two rebounds in the first half, but he picked up his activity on the glass in the third quarter. He pulled in six rebounds in the third – all on the defensive side. Ayton spoke to reporters afterward about his eight-rebound second-half turnaround.

“… [J]ust put my head down and if they call the foul, they call the foul – still attack on the glass and that’s what I’m known for. That’s what I’m good at, that’s my advantage. I just put my head down and just competed on the glass – try not to get complacent. I just try to keep my energy throughout the whole game up. Rebounds are a big part of it, just crashing the glass … feeling the physicality – just staying within the game,” Ayton said.

The Lakers outrebounded the Suns, 39-31, in the game.

Ayton scored eight of his 22 points in the second half, going 4-for-6 from the field.

The Lakers led by as much as 12 points late in the first quarter, 24-16, with 1:55 remaining. Ayton and the Suns closed that gap to six points as the quarter ended 30-24 in favor of the visitors.

In the second quarter, the Lakers controlled the tempo of the game, but the game was still within reach for the Suns.

At the end of the third quarter, the Lakers led 79-72. In that quarter, Suns head coach Monty Williams hadto manage veteran guard Chris Paul minutes in, as he seemed bothered by a right shoulder contusion injury he suffered in game one. Williams played Paul for just four minutes in that quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Suns managed to tie the game at 86 with seven minutes left. A cutting Ayton threw down a slam dunk on a pass from Cameron Payne to give his team their first lead of the second half, 88-86.

The Bahamian spoke about how different they are without Paul on the court who played just under three minutes in the fourth.

“I would say it was a longer game. I don’t know, man, it was just a tough game today … us trying to match the physicality and not having (Paul) out there as much on the floor, shout out to Cam Payne for doing what he did to hold it down for us. We kept trying and we kept pushing and the crowd helped us get back into it, but the Lakers was the better team today,” Ayton stated.

The Lakers used a 14-4 scoring run to take a 100-92 lead with just two minutes left in the game. Lakers forward Anthony Davis finished with a game-high 34 points, scoring 14 of those points in the fourth quarter. He went 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

Although the Suns lost the game, 2018 number one overall draft pick Ayton said the locker room remains upbeat.

“One thing about us, losses do not change anything,” Ayton stated. “We stick to our culture and we still have each other’s backs to the end. We just got to get back together and do what we have to do and play our type of basketball. The locker room is always upbeat. You can’t really tell we lost a game, really when you’re in the locker room, especially big games like this. At the end of the day, we still had fun and it isn’t like this is this team’s second time. This is our first time. At the end of the day, we’re still enjoying ourselves, we’re still doing the job at hand.”

The Suns will head to Los Angeles, California, where they will play their first of two straight road games at Staples Center tonight. Tip-off for game three is set for 10 o’clock on TNT.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/ayton-suns-fall-as-lakers-win-game-two/