Clippers @ Suns Game 5 Predictions: points will be tough to come by

With the Suns on the brink of an NBA Finals appearance, will they be able to close out the series and avoid a trip back to LA...?

In sports fandom, there’s always that player or team that might not be your favorite team, but manages to catch your eye anyway. There’s something about them, their style, their pizzazz, that makes you take notice.

When I was just starting to get into watching the NBA and playing the NBA Live video game series by EA Sports, the team that were exactly what I described above. It was that Steve Nash led Phoenix Suns team. That team went on to revolutionize basketball in its own way, paving the way for the style of play we see from almost every team these days.

Tonight, the Suns are a 5.5-point favorite and favored to go on and reach the NBA Finals.

Phoenix pulled out Game 4 in Los Angeles and will have that opportunity in front of their home crowd tonight. However, I can’t get over how ugly Game 4 was. The final score was just 84-80, 53.5 points below that night’s total of 217.5.

In reality, we should’ve expected the under to hit a few times in this series. The Suns were tied for 26th in the league in pace with the Clippers one spot under them. The total opened at 218 but has taken a nosedive and currently sits at 213.

There’s been only one constant in this series, and that’s been Deandre Ayton. If you remember, I was raving about him and calling attention to him back in the Denver series and identified Ayton as the reason they would move on, and that’s still holding true.

Chris Paul had an off game in his return, and Booker didn’t do much better, shooting 23 percent following his Game 3 performance when he had seven turnovers.

Paul has been in this situation before; up 3-1 with a chance to advance, but was on the wrong side of ferocious comebacks. Ironically, he’s now playing the team he was on when he was up 3-1 against the Rockets when Doc Rivers was still coach and Blake Griffin was a superstar. I think Paul smells blood in the water and will do everything he can, even if it costs his body, to get to an NBA Finals that’s long eluded him to this point of his career.

Since I already hold the ticket for the Suns to advance, and the Moneyline hovering around -220, I’ll take the under in this one. The under is 3-1 in this series and the Clippers look exhausted and I’m not sure if they’ll be able to keep matching Phoenix’s depth with those heavy minutes from Paul George and Reggie Jackson.

You can probably tell which direction I’m going with our prop of the day.

That’s right, let’s ride Deandre Ayton over 11.5 rebounds tonight. He had possibly the best game of these playoffs In Game 4 when he went for 19 points and 22 rebounds, nine coming on the offensive end.

If your book allows you to parlay his over rebounds with the Suns to win, that’s my favorite bet of the night.