Los Angeles Clippers are once again 0-2 in third straight playoff series, Here are 3 keys for them to win

Los Angeles Clippers guard/forward reacting to a referee's decisionNBA - Getty Images

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Los Angeles Clippers are down 0-2 in a playoff series.

That's right, Once again the Clippers fail to win any of the first two games of their western conference semi-finals matchup against the red hot Phoenix Suns. And just like their second-round matchup against the Utah Jazz, both of the losses happened on the opponent's home court.

In the first round, we saw the Los Angeles Clippers lose the first two games to the Dallas Mavericks in front of their home crowd.

But then we saw the Clippers miraculously turn it around to win both the first and second-round matchups to get where they are now even without a Kawhi Leonard for most of the second round.

Now faced with this young and confident Phoenix Suns team, Can the Los Angeles Clippers do it once again?

Although history does have a weird way of repeating itself this might be too tall of a task to overcome.

But if it does happen, these are the 3 key things I believe they need to do in order to possibly take back this series. Starting with the third game being in front of their home crowd.

1. The Crowd

Los Angeles Clippers fans in attendance of a gameNBA - Getty Images

This is of course has less to do with the players, but I believe one of the keys to victory here is for the crowd to come into the stadium ready to scream, chant, and yell the roof off of the Staples Center in game 3 & 4. Regardless of whether the Clippers are down by 1 point, 5 points, or even 20 points at halftime, the fans need to have the same energy throughout it all as the game is never over until it is over.

2. Free-Throw shots

Los Angeles Clippers guard/forward Paul George missing crucial free-throw shot at the end of game 2 against the Phoenix SunsNBA - Getty Images

In the first two games of the series, the Clippers have yet to make more field goals than the Phoenix Suns, and that both games have ended rather close shows me that one team is more capable of numerous runs throughout the game and the other team is capable of one big run in one part of the game, The Clippers being the latter.

But one thing the Clippers have been able to do better than the Phoenix Suns is get to the foul line outshooting the Suns 17 free throw attempts to the Suns 9 attempts, And 24 attempts to Pheonix's 18 attempts. Playing into the first key, the Clippers are home this game and the next and it's been shown these refs throughout the years call the game very weirdly when a Staples Center is hosting home games. A win is a win at the end of it all and the Clippers need to use that to their advantage and get the refs to notice contact on almost every driving play and get to the line more than they did in the first two games. Although they do NEED to make their free throw shots *cough cough* Paul George.

3. Take the Suns role-players out of the game

Phoenix Suns guard Cameron Payne celebrating after making a 3-point shotNBA - Getty Images

This one to me is the most important of the 3 keys. With Chris Paul being out for the Suns throughout the first two games I honestly thought there would be a very slim chance they would win 1 of these first two games, let alone 2.

In my eyes, the main reason for the Sun's wins is from their role players making consistent and big shots. In game one we saw Devin Booker score 40 but he is their main guy, leading scorer, and main scorer. But it was also 5 other Suns players who scored in double figures to the Clippers 3 players scoring in double figures. In game 2 we saw Devin Booker score just 20, but it was Cameron Payne who scored 29 to lead the team in scoring to their 104-103 win, along with Cam Johnson and Dario Saric on the bench both scoring 11 a piece. Although the game was close and came down to the last shot if they can get one or two of the role players uncomfortable enough to miss their shots then the games wouldn't need to go to the last shot.

Game 3 takes place Thursday June 24th.

Hope you guys enjoyed the read

-Sani

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