Proud, progress and cathartic. All words used to describe the Phoenix Suns’ run through the 2020-2021 playoffs and into the NBA Finals. The Suns captivated the city after an Arizona-sized playoff drought. Ten years without postseason basketball will make any city crave late-season heroics, much less a basketball city such as Phoenix.
During the ten-year absence, Phoenix saw the lowest lows and little to no highs. Averaging just under 27 wins per season between 2010-2018, the best moments for Suns fans were buzzer-beaters by a player who had essentially retired by age 23 and a 20-year old Devin Booker scoring 70 points in a losing effort.
Nobody expected much from the Suns heading into the 2019-2020 season and they more or less reached those expectations. Barely hanging onto the tenth seed, the COVID-19 pandemic halted all walks of life across the globe. Eventually, Phoenix narrowly got an invite to the NBA’s bubble experiment in order to finish the regular season and determine the final seeding for the playoffs.
After needing a perfect eight-game win streak against nearly all playoff teams to keep their postseason hopes alive, Phoenix defied the odds by remaining perfect in the bubble highlighted by a Booker buzzer-beater over two of the NBA’s premier defenders, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
The team’s historically bad luck returned and they still missed the playoffs.
However, the bubble was not a failure. Phoenix had new life and momentum, a momentum that persuaded 11x All-Star guard Chris Paul and forward Jae Crowder to play in The Valley of the Sun.
“I thought maybe they’d maybe be like a 6,7,8 playoff seed,” third-year sports journalism student Collin Ring said. “I thought for sure they’d have a good improvement, they’d make the playoffs and maybe make a second round.”
As the season went on, Phoenix picked up steam and reached the postseason clinching the second seed in a competitive Western Conference.
The Phoenician curse struck again with the Suns drawing the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.
Some Suns fans were worried while others were ready for the task.
“I would almost argue that it had to happen that way. Because I think we’re the only team in the West that could beat the Lakers,” third-year journalism student Gannon Hanevold said. “I think had we met them in the Western Conference Finals after they had played together for two full series, I think it might have been a different story.”
Despite a Paul shoulder contusion, the Suns ended Lakers forward LeBron James’ undefeated streak of first-round wins in the playoffs and rolled on. After sweeping the Denver Nuggets in the second round, the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2010.
Coming off of some of the best basketball of his career, disaster struck once again as Paul tested positive for COVID-19 right before the Western Conference Finals.
“I thought we were done for,” third-year journalism student Jack Wu said. “I really had lost all faith, the whole thing is momentum, you really need to ride the momentum.”
After taking Game 1 without Paul, the Suns had to pull out something special in Game 2 to defend its home-court advantage. Down by one with an inbound pass and 0.9 seconds left, the end of Game 2 proved to be a pivotal moment in the series and an instant classic.
“I told my brother, ‘they have to do an oop’ because there’s no time for a shot and if they do shoot it, it’s gonna be messy,” Wu said before the alley-oop went in. “Then the room was electric, it was so crazy. My ears were ringing for so long after that and it was just so exciting.”
In the end, the Suns were too hot for the Clippers and progressed to the NBA Finals, a stage they hadn’t reached since 1993.
“It didn’t feel real, like I didn’t feel like I was watching a finals game,” Hanevold said. “It was hard for me to comprehend that this was really the final, and this is really my team.”
Unfortunately, after a very successful, expectation-exceeding postseason, it finished with the opposing team hoisting the trophy.
“I’d still say I was proud of the team,” Ring said. “It hurt, I was disappointed that it ended the way it did but I was so proud of the team.
Despite the loss, the Suns won over Phoenicians again with its youthful energy and eye-catching style of play throughout a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals.
“Any time there was a Suns game, there was no parking at all. You’d have people yelling in the streets, but it’s not reckless you know, it’s everyone coming together around one wonderful basketball team,” Wu said. “Walking to the stadium, such an exciting feeling, you scan your ticket, walk through those doors, and you can just feel it. Feel it.”
