'Valley-oop' another sign of Deandre Ayton's ascendancy in Suns' playoff run

When the final buzzer sounded in the Phoenix Suns’ thrilling 104-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night, Deandre Ayton thought about one person.

The former Arizona Wildcat gave his three-month old son, Deandre Ayton Jr., his game-worn black “Valley” jersey as a reminder of a play that has became a part of Arizona sports lore.

With 0.9 seconds left, Ayton ran down the center of the lane — thanks to a screen set by Devin Booker — and caught an inbounds pass just above the rim. He quickly slammed the ball through the hoop over Clippers center Ivica Zubac for the game-winning basket, giving the Suns a one-point win and a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

“Some people might say, ‘Oh, you didn’t do anything or win anything,’ but that one meant something to me,” Ayton said after the game.

Ayton said the “Valley-oop” was easily the best basketball moment of his life.

“The celebration and reaction was a little shaky, because I wasn’t too sure what I did. I wasn’t too sure if it counted or if it would be a blooper,” he told reporters. “I just wanted to get to the next play or for the refs to confirm what it is. I was so anxious and stressed — it was a lot. … But that was my best play and I tried to embrace it.”

The 22-year-old was quick to praise teammate Jae Crowder, who placed the inbounds pass over the Clippers’ DeMarcus Cousins and perfectly above the rim.

“That’s definitely Jae’s game-winner for making a great pass over a 7-footer,” Ayton said. “I was in the best position, and my teammates trust me and my coaches trust me. ‘Book’ set a great screen that freed me up in the lane that allowed me to gather my feet and go for the ball. The rest is off my athleticism and talent. …

“Jae set it up there perfectly. … It was just me doing what I do best, which is finishing at the rim.”

Ayton isn’t wrong about the latter.

Ayton’s 24-point performance on 12-for-15 shooting (80%) on Tuesday was one of his better outings in the postseason, and is another example of his maturity and growth since entering the NBA as the top draft pick three years ago. This postseason, Ayton is averaging 16.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game and is shooting 72.6% from the field. He’s the first player in the shot-clock era — which started in the 1954-55 season — to shoot better than 70% in a 12-game span during the postseason, according to ESPN Stats and Info. (Players must have a minimum of 100 shot attempts.)

Ayton has eight double-doubles in 12 postseason games to go with six 20-point performances. His “worst” game was a 10-point, 15-rebound effort against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.

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“You can say ‘Domin-Ayton’ times 100. I’m just playing,” Ayton joked.

Ayton’s playoff run has come against frontcourt players such as Lakers all-defensive star Anthony Davis, league veteran Andre Drummond and newly-crowned NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

Now playing against a wounded Clippers team, the Suns’ budding big man is looking the part of a No. 1 overall pick. The “should’ve taken Luka Doncic over Ayton” takes have been put on ice, at least for now.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but his growth is continuous through every game,” Booker told reporters. “From Game 1 of the playoffs, I feel like he flipped a switch and turned it on, and he doesn’t want to look back. He feels his confidence is there and he understands how much of a force he is.

“I think he’s figuring out his capabilities of being able to move and guard, set screens and being in the right place. He extended his mid-range (jumpshot), too. He can give it to you all types of ways. … He’s a dominant force on this team, and we lean on him for a lot of things.”

Ayton’s rise to postseason stardom is partially credited to the culture change by first-year coach Monty Williams. The detail-oriented Williams “made (Ayton) a super gym rat” and constantly preached what he refers to as “smell the gym.”

“There were times where I would come in on our days off. … He really instilled that in me, where I constantly wanted to sharpen my screws and be the best that I can be,” Ayton told reporters. “Knowing what we have to do night in and night out, I have to be in the gym to be consistent. Just to see the results now at an eye level, I can’t get out of the gym. That’s what he instilled in me and I kept it going.”

Williams also sold Ayton on his role for this year’s Suns team: a rim-finishing big man who can close out defenders on the perimeter and protect the rim. He has served as a complementary big man to the guard tandem of Booker and Chris Paul, who missed the first two games of the Clippers series after testing positive for COVID-19.

“He’s starting to understand that having a role doesn’t limit you. Sometimes when you tell a guy their role, they tend to think, ‘I can’t do anything else.’ He just has a big role,” Williams told reporters. “Defensively, the rebounding, the ability to go up at the end to get that ball where nobody else could go get it, it says a lot about his mental maturity. … I could go on and on about where he was to where he is now, he’s just turning into a really dominant player on both ends of the floor.”

The Suns have won nine straight games, and are two wins away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993. Ayton’s “150%” mindset and focus could be the shot in the arm Phoenix needs to win the franchise’s first championship.

“Usually it’s like 110%, but it’s 150%,” Ayton said. “And it’s 150% mentally. The level of focus and the things you really have to pay attention to, it’s really intense. Then fatigue kicks in and it’s, ‘Who really has your back? Who’s locked in?’ This team is it.”

Added Ayton: “I play as hard as I can. This is my team. I dominate the best that I can for this team, and I’ll take this team as far as I can.

“Other than that, I trust my work ethic, I trust my craft and I work very hard at it — and I’ll continue to do that.”