{"id":17540,"date":"2021-07-01T13:32:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T08:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=118706"},"modified":"2021-07-01T13:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T08:02:31","slug":"nba-playoffs-phoenix-suns-are-the-western-conference-champions-headed-to-the-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/nba\/nba-playoffs-phoenix-suns-are-the-western-conference-champions-headed-to-the-nba-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Playoffs: Phoenix Suns are the Western Conference champions, headed to the NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Phoenix Suns lift the NBA Western Conference Finals trophy and are headed to the NBA Finals which starts from July 8.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SUNS WIN!<br \/>SUNS WIN!<br \/>SUNS WIN! <br \/>SUNS WIN!<br \/>SUNS WIN! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RallyTheValley?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RallyTheValley<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Phoenix Suns (@Suns) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Suns\/status\/1410444777871405059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>They, after missing the playoffs for 10 seasons back-to-back advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993, defeating Los Angeles Clippers in Game 6 130-103 and dominating the series 4-2. Suns will now represent Western Conference at the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Suns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Suns<\/a> lift the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAWCF?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBAWCF<\/a> presented by AT&T trophy and will represent the Western Conference in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAFinals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBAFinals<\/a> presented by YouTube TV for the first time since 1993! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ThatsGame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThatsGame<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M6ImKWgkzF\">pic.twitter.com\/M6ImKWgkzF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1410449514960404483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The newly crowned Western Conference winners will either face the Atlanta Hawks or the Milwaukee Bucks, who are drawing the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals with 2-2 currently. Suns, during the shortened 72-game regular season, were one of just two teams to win 50 games along with Utah. They eliminated the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers at the first round in Game 6 who couldn\u2019t play their star player Anthony Davis as he missed the final 2 1\/2 games of the teams\u2019 first-round series due to a groin injury.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix Suns also faced deprivation in the early first two games as their veteran floor leader, Chris Paul couldn\u2019t play due to the league\u2019s coronavirus health and safety conditions, but they managed to dominate both the games without him. They also overcame their All-Star guard Devin Booker\u2019s nose injury in Game 2 due to a collision with the opponent player.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Paul went off with a career-high NBA Playoffs 41 points with 31 in the 2nd half, which tied him up for the 3rd most 2nd half points in a series-clinching win since 1996-97 following Anthony Davis (33 PTS) and Stephen Curry (33 PTS). He is now the oldest player (36 years, 55 days) to score 40+ points in a closeout game, previously it was Michael Jordan (35 years, 117 days) in 1998.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Yo <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Suns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Suns<\/a> y\u2019all did that. Respect. Congrats. 16 yrs a long time <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CP3?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CP3<\/a> \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StephenCurry30\/status\/1410446524237058050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Suns would join last season\u2019s Lakers and Boston Celtics in 2007-08 as champions this century, if they go on and win the first title in franchise history.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lifting the trophy as Western Conference Champs\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PhantomCam?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PhantomCam<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Suns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Suns<\/a> x <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ThatsGame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThatsGame<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4POFfik1TU\">pic.twitter.com\/4POFfik1TU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1410482047307685893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Phoenix Suns lift the NBA Western Conference Finals trophy and are headed to the NBA Finals which starts from\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":38284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2036,1781,1008,1729,1793,583,275,826,1124,2035,1796,1792],"class_list":["post-17540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-basketball","tag-chris-paul","tag-devin-booker","tag-la-clippers","tag-lakers","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nba","tag-nba-2020-21","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-phoenix-suns"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}