Clippers have no Finals answer, eliminated by Suns in Game 6

For 29 days they were constantly on the move, shuttling between basketball courts in Los Angeles and Dallas, Salt Lake City and eventually Phoenix, a game scheduled every other day as their manic, marathon postseason continued deeper than any Clippers team before it.

When its end arrived Wednesday inside Staples Center, with minutes still to play in a 130-103 loss in this clinching Game 6 of this Western Conference finals, the Clippers finally were left with nowhere to go.

There would be no Game 7 in Phoenix. There would be no Finals plane ride to either Milwaukee or Atlanta. There were just long stares, emotionless expressions and a team coming to terms with the one deficit it could not overcome after five weeks of rallies.

Arms crossed, coach Tyronn Lue leaned against the scorer’s table inside Staples Center as Suns guard Chris Paul made a final three-pointer.

Paul George, the All-Star who had played more minutes than anyone this postseason, wiped his brow with a towel in a folding chair along the sideline. He and the rest of the Clippers’ starters had earned a standing ovation with 2:58 to play, but they had not earned another chance to continue this team’s defiant, unprecedented playoff run.

Kawhi Leonard, joining his teammates on the sideline for the first time in these Western Conference finals, his injured right knee hidden in black pants, looked down the sideline where Paul, after scoring 41 points, screamed a cathartic roar inside the arena he once called home.

It was Paul who finally dug his former team a trench too deep, then tossed on the dirt for good measure, his 31 second-half points making him only the third player in the last 25 years to score at least 30 after halftime in a series-clinching victory. It sent the Suns to their first NBA Finals since 1993 and denied the Clippers the kind of rally that had extended their season during two previous rounds.

Those comebacks had become so routine that it didn’t appear over when Phoenix built a 10-point lead with nine minutes left before halftime. It was tied four minutes later.

And it didn’t appear over when their lead was up to 17 with four minutes to play in the third quarter. It was down to seven only two minutes later.

But after three inconsistent games while playing with injured ligaments in his left hand, Paul was indomitable, with seven three-pointers and 66% shooting overall to claim his first berth in an NBA Finals in his 15th season.

After missing all nine of the three-pointers he took Games 4 and 5, Paul made his first two and forced Lue to call an early timeout, down six.

But at the first quarter’s end, the Suns led by just four despite 25 combined points by Paul, Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker after DeMarcus Cousins banked in a last-second fadeaway prayer from beyond the three-point arc. As the center stormed back to the huddle, looking as surprised as anyone at the shot he’d just made, Leonard extended a hand for a high-five. He had stayed in California for road games and a suite for Games 3 and 4 while enduring criticism for not being with his teammates. It sparked hope that the Clippers would find a way to do it again, one more rally, but there was not enough shooting (30% from deep) when the Suns made 17 of their 31 three-pointers.

With 5:49 to play, and the Clippers down 26, guard Patrick Beverley shoved Paul in the back with two hands and was ejected. As referees reviewed the play, he told Lue he was “good,” nodding his head, but he was soon gone, and his team not far behind him.

With Beverley’s frustration-filled shove, “we knew we broke them,” Suns forward Jae Crowder said.

Still, to finally be without the timely stop, the opportunistic basket that had pushed them to a first conference final after 51 years, even after injuries to center Serge Ibaka (back), Leonard (knee) and center Ivica Zubac (right knee), stunned the Clippers.

Guard Reggie Jackson’s eyes welled with tears after the final game of the best season of his 10-year career, describing how his teammates had “revitalized” his career.

“I think it’s a shock to a lot of the guys in the locker room” that the season was over, Lue said. “It tells you a lot about the team. No matter who’s playing we think we still have a chance.”

Two days after rescuing the Clippers’ season for one more game with a career-high 41 points, George scored 21 and was “gassed” after 41 more minutes, Lue said. Marcus Morris, still playing on a left knee that was not fully healthy, scored a team-high 26.

The Clippers’ finest season did not end with their finest hour. Like their three other losses in this series, this was a winnable game spoiled by self-inflicted mistakes, aided by mental and physical fatigue Lue acknowledged had caught up to his team first with defensive breakdowns and finally with the inability to stop Paul.

It wasn’t a last-second inbounds pass (Game 2) or an 0-for-10 shooting slump with a chance to take the lead (Game 4) that hurt the Clippers this time but allowing 19 second-chance points.

Suns guard Chris Paul enjoys the final moments of Phoenix’s Game 6 victory from the sideline near coach Monty Williams on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“You think about it, if we had our guys what would have happened or what could have happened but just got to move on,” Lue said.

When Lue thinks about this season, he said he will remember the way they became the first team to win consecutive series while trailing 2-0, the resilience that banished the “bubble talk” that had shadowed the franchise after its postseason collapse nine months ago.

“Finally getting to a position and place that we’ve never been before as an organization, it means a lot to the guys in the locker room, even though we want to do more, and we’re going to do more,” Lue said.

“But just taking that next step of erasing the bubble, the talk of can we perform, can we get to the next step and those guys have done that. Not happy that we finished short but we are happy with what we’ve been able to accomplish this season.”

Clippers series vs. Suns

(Tim Hubbard / Los Angeles Times)