Category: News

This article originally appeared on 05.31.15

Photographer David Jay specializes in fashion and beauty, stuff that’s “beautiful and sexy — and completely untrue,” as he puts it. But that’s not all he photographs.

Three years ago, Jay began to take pictures of young, severely wounded soldiers returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trigger warning: These portraits don’t shy away from wounded bodies.

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Be prepared. I found them shocking at first. But keep looking. The more I looked, the more beauty and humanity I found reflected here. (The photo captions are from the Jay’s Unknown Soldier Project Facebook page.)

This is 1st Lt. Nicholas John Vogt, U.S. Army. On Nov. 12, 2011, he was severely injured by an IED while on a foot-patrol in Panjwaii, Afghanistan. We took these pictures this past weekend in the swimming pool at Walter Reed Medical Center. I asked Nicholas for his permission to post these images and this was his response: “The only thing that I want to pass on is this: Losing limbs is like losing a good friend. We wish we could still be with them, but it wasn’t ‘in the cards.’ Then we get up, remember the good times, and thank God for whatever we have left.” Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography. All images used with permission.

In a National Public Radio interview about his project, Jay said, “You can imagine how many times each of these men and women have heard a parent tell their child, ‘Don’t look. Don’t stare at him. That’s rude.'”

“I take these pictures so that we can look; we can see what we’re not supposed to see. And we need to see them because we created them.” — David Jay

Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

Jay wants us to see, to become even a little familiar with the tragic loss of limbs and burned skin of wounded vets — his portraits are 4 feet wide — but he also wants us to see them as people and to think about their experiences and those of people in their lives.

This past week, I went to San Antonio, Texas. There I had the privilege of photographing both Daniel Burgess and Bobby Bernier. They are friends. Daniel stepped on a IED, losing one leg and destroying the other. Bobby was hit by incoming artillery, sustaining burns over 60% of his body. He is pictured here with his daughter Layla. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

This is Maj. Matt Smith. This past week, Matt allowed me to photograph him in his room at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Less than three months ago, on June 8, 2013, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Matt was shot along with five others by a member of the Afghan National Army. The bullet severed his femoral artery, resulting in the amputation of his leg. A private and soulful man, it was an honor to photograph him. Thank you, Maj. Smith. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This is Jerral Hancock. He was driving a tank in Iraq. A roadside bomb pierced the armor, breaching the interior. We shot these pics two weeks ago at his home in Lancaster, California, where Jarral lives with his two beautiful children. We ended up hanging out into the night, smokin’ ciggys … so I kept taking pictures. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

“To the men and women of The Unknown Soldier, I can’t thank you enough for your courage and sacrifice … both on and off the battlefield. It is an honor to photograph you.” — David Jay

On July 25, 2012, SFC Cedric King, an Airborne Ranger, was severely injured by an IED while serving his country in Afghanistan. Due to the explosion, Cedric sustained a multitude of internal and external injuries, losing both his legs. Cedric was doing his laps while I was photographing 1st Lt. Nicholas Vogt in the pool at Walter Reed Medical Center last week. Cedric kept watching, so I had to ask. Cedric said, “That man (Nicholas) doesn’t know it, but he changed my life. There was a point when I was so down that I thought I couldn’t go on. And then one day I saw him swimming … and I just thought, wow … if he can go on like that, then I can go on too.” Cedric will also change people’s lives. Already has. Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This is Michael Fox, a 27-year-old Marine and an amazing man. On Nov. 15, 2011, Michael was on foot-patrol in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His is the first picture of “The Unknown Soldier.” Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This past weekend, I photographed Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris in Houston, Texas. He came up from San Antonio to see one of my other exhibitions, The SCAR Project (www.thescarproject.org). Shilo was severely burned on Feb. 19, 2007, by a roadside bomb estimated at 700 pounds. He lost three men out of a crew of five. Only Shilo and his driver survived the blast. Shilo has a book coming out soon. He is truly an amazing man, and I am honored to call him a friend. Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

“The Unknown Soldier is about neither war or politics … but rather something infinitely simpler and more powerful.” — David Jay

Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

The Library of Congress has acquired images from Jay’s The Unknown Soldier project as part of its documentation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This speaks to the power of these images in capturing war’s aftermath. But they are so much more than documentation.

Pictures like these help those of us who remain at home to begin to comprehend the true human cost of war.

Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals did not go as the Philadelphia 76ers hoped, as they couldn’t capitalize on a rare off-shooting night from Trae Young in what became a 103-96 loss to enter what is now a very interesting offseason early.

After the game, a focal point was Ben Simmons, who had 13 points and eight rebounds, playing his typical key role defensively as well, but had just five points and for the fourth straight game did not attempt a shot from the field in the fourth quarter. Making that worse was that he had a wide open dunk that he passed up in the late fourth quarter to tie the game at 88, instead shoveling a pass to Matisse Thybulle who got fouled and split his free throws.

Doc Rivers was asked about that moment and just took a deep breath, saying, “yeah,” before moving on and later admitted he just didn’t know if Simmons could be a championship point guard. That passed up dunk came up later when Joel Embiid pointed to that sequence — including the ensuing Hawks bucket and his turnover after that — as “the turning point” in the game.

You can tell that Embiid is trying not to completely shift the blame onto Simmons by noting his turnover after, one of many for him on what was a sloppy night for Philly as a unit, but it’s understandable that moment would stick out in the mind of Embiid and many others. It was a brutal sequence and was the embodiment of the issues Simmons has on the offensive end right now. Embiid also issued an apology to Philly on Twitter for not getting the Sixers further, as he’s unsurprisingly taking this latest early playoff exit hard.

With Doc’s comments and Embiid’s, it certainly sets up an offseason where Simmons trade rumors are going to swirl — and fans have been firing up the trade machine for some time. What the impact of losing Simmons would have on the defense is hard to properly figure out given his versatility on that end, but if this series showed anything it’s that the Sixers desperately need to upgrade their backcourt offensively. Simmons will get the most blame of anyone on the roster for this loss, but there’s plenty to go around. Embiid, for as magnificent as he was all playoffs, had some rough turnovers and again seemed out of gas at the end. Tobias Harris looked like last year’s Harris and not this year’s improved version, missing a number of good looks near the rim in Game 7, and the bench unit was a disaster all series, with Doc Rivers failing to make rotation adjustments.

Still, Simmons’ refusal to dunk the ball will be one of the lasting images of this series for fans, and it’s clear it stood out in the moment to Embiid and the Sixers as well.

The Philadelphia 76ers completed one of the worst collapses from a 1-seed in recent playoff history on Sunday night, losing Game 7 at home to a resilient Atlanta Hawks team that deserves full credit for putting the Sixers into stressful situations and asking them to come up with answers offensively over and over late in games.

The Sixers could not do that at all in three of their four losses — with the Game 1 loss coming after getting smacked early and failing to complete a late comeback. Philly, which blew 18- and 26-point leads in Games 4 and 5, respectively, held a four-point advantage in Game 7, which is certainly less of a staggering lead to lose grip of, but that it happened on a night where Trae Young struggled shooting and the Hawks scored just 103 points hammered home the issues the Sixers have offensively.

Chief among those is Ben Simmons, who for the fourth straight game in the series went 0-for-0 from the field in the fourth quarter, which seems almost impossible.

It’s even more impossible when you consider he chose not to take a wide open dunk with only Young rotating over to him with Philly down two, passing it off to a shocked Matisse Thybulle who got fouled and split the free throws.

After the game, Doc Rivers was asked about Simmons and whether he can be the point guard on a championship team and he gave the honest answer, which is that he doesn’t know.

Rivers would at a different point say, “I still believe in him,” but noted that there was a lot of work to do with him in the gym to get him to a point where he’s better next year and more confident and willing to score. It has reached the point with Simmons where Sixers fans have grown so frustrated with the lack of scoring impact that they are almost completely in agreement that it’s time to move on from him and get someone with more offensive punch in there alongside Embiid at the guard spot. Whether Daryl Morey agrees or not remains to be seen, but Simmons was on the trade block in James Harden talks earlier in the season, and Morey has never been shy about shuffling the deck in a big way when he sees a glaring need.

It might be best for all parties if Simmons is moved, as a fresh start away from the house of playoff horrors that Philadelphia has become may just bring out the best in him — as would a fresh perspective. As he noted after the game, he needs to clear his head after this series.

Rivers, meanwhile, has plenty of blame to be laid at his feet for this series, with dreadful bench deployment, namely with Dwight Howard who was awful all series, and refusing to try small-ball lineups with Simmons at the five in lieu of Howard, which would’ve given the Hawks a much different look and put Simmons in the game early in the quarter. That would’ve helped the “hack-a-Simmons” situation as he could’ve played more minutes with the Sixers not in the bonus and exited for the middle before coming in fresh late.

Still, no one in Philly is happy with just about anyone not named Joel Embiid or Seth Curry, and the offseason is about to be very interesting in the city of brotherly love.

After two straight collapses in Games 4 and 5, the Sixers were able to rebound in Atlanta to force a Game 7 back home and give themselves a chance to finally put away the Hawks in a series that has been rather unbelievable to this point. The Hawks have been, without a doubt, the more resilient side in the series and it’s how they got all three of their wins going into Sunday night, and that resiliency was put to the test once again in Game 7.

Trae Young struggled for the first three quarters of the game, scoring just 11 points on 2-of-16 shooting from the field as Atlanta’s top star couldn’t find his touch from anywhere to start the game. With Young playing that poorly as a scorer, one would have expected the Sixers to be cruising, but the Hawks defense bowed up forcing 15 turnovers through three quarters and Kevin Huerter and John Collins stepped up in a major way to get Atlanta a 76-71 lead going to the fourth.

Huerter, in particular, took over as the Hawks lead scorer, with 19 points through three quarters including flat out taking over in isolation for a stretch in the third.

Young did have nine assists, as he was able to continue to be effective running the Hawks offense and setting up his teammates, particularly Clint Capela, as the Sixers bent their defense to keep him from getting good looks.

On the other side, it was Joel Embiid who carried the load offensively and kept the Sixers in it, as he so often has in this series.

Tobias Harris took on the lead creator role for Game 7, but struggled to find his range as a shooter, going just 5-of-16 from the field through three quarters, as the Sixers had far too many empty possessions between their shooting struggles and turnovers — six of which came from Embiid. Fittingly, Game 7 came down to a tight and tense fourth quarter, as has happened so often in this series.

This time, it was the Hawks turn to go cold from the field to start, as Joel Embiid took matters into his own hands early in the quarter, leading the Sixers on a 10-1 run to open up an 81-77 lead.

However, the Hawks had the answer once again in the form of Kevin Huerter, who hit a midrange jumper to tie it at 84-84 (after a Young midrange jumper to finally pull the lid off the rim for him) with six minutes to play.

Huerter again gave the Hawks the lead at 88-86, which the Sixers answered by getting Ben Simmons in the post on Danilo Gallinari where he spun into a wide open dunk and…passed.

Thybulle would split the free throws and on the next possession, Trae Young got Clint Capela a lob on a broken play where Tobias Harris, inexplicably, chased Young all the way out and let him blow by him after making a good defensive play initially.

Trae then, after not being able to hit anything all night and 4-of-22 from the field, hit his second three of the game from long range to put an early dagger in the Sixers.

The Sixers would pull all the way back to within one at 93-92 with a minute to play, but Matisse Thybulle fouled, who else, but Huerter on a three-pointer just as the Hawks were struggling to create anything positive offensively.

Huerter hit all three free throws to put the Hawks up 96-92, and then the icing on the cake came when Embiid got ripped clean by Gallinari, who then got the runout dunk, which proved to be enough of a cushion to get them the win and a date with the Bucks on Wednesday night for the start of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Huerter finished with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting, with six rebounds and three assists as the Hawks best player on the night, an incredible performance in a spot where they desperately needed someone to step up given Young’s dreadful shooting night. Young clawed out a 21-point, 10-assist effort as he was able to positively impact the game even as his shot didn’t fall, including setting up all six of Clint Capela’s made field goals on the evening. Gallinari had 17 points off the bench as he likewise gave the Hawks a big lift, while John Collins had 14 points and 16 rebounds in the 103-96 victory.

On the other side, Joel Embiid had 31 points and 11 rebounds to lead all scorers, with Seth Curry having a solid 16-point effort in support. Harris finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds, but his 8-for-24 shooting effort, with a painful number of misses from close range left a lot out there. Ben Simmons had 13 assists and eight rebounds, but just five points as he continued to be terrified of even trying to score the basketball, best evidenced by him passing up a wide open dunk in the fourth, and didn’t attempt a shot in the fourth quarter once again in this series.

The Sixers now enter an offseason that will be fascinating, as it’s apparently clear that this core group just isn’t going to get it done. Simmons seems in desperate need of a change of scenery and will be the focal point of trade rumors and trade machine efforts for the rest of the summer. Whether that’s the move Daryl Morey chooses to make remains to be seen, but something likely needs to happen because this series was nothing short of a collapse, blowing a pair of 18-plus point leads and then failing to beat the Hawks on Trae Young’s worst shooting night of the postseason.

For the Hawks, it was another show of their tremendous heart and effort, pulling out a win under the most unlikely of circumstances once again. It looked early in the fourth like Philly could take over and for the Hawks to put it away behind the scoring efforts of the others beyond Young has to build confidence as they head to Milwaukee for what figures to be an even tougher test against a Bucks team that just put battled through their own playoff demons in back-to-back series.

Who is Tucker Carlson? Is he a sincere conspiracy theorist earnestly feeding his millions of viewers misinformation? Or is he a grifter cynically flinging red meat to his base while secretly bearing different beliefs? The truth gets even murkier in a new piece by The New York Times’ Ben Smith, in which he — a proud member of the “fake news media” — alleges to not only be really good texting buddies with the Fox News stalwart. He’s also, Smith claims, he’s widely considered a great source for unflattering Trump gossip.

In a new piece, the paper’s premier media columnist confesses he has a frenemy-style relationship with the media figure who was roasted the very same day by CNN’s Brian Stelter. While Stelter had solemn questions for Carlson, Smith was a bit more savvy and Inside Baseball, alleging that it’s an “open secret” that he’s a big time gossip hound — the “go-to-guy for sometimes-unflattering stories about Donald J. Trump,” as well as dirt about his home network. Smith names over a dozen colleagues (none at the Times) that they get dirt from him. Three of those called him “a great source.”

Smith writes:

“In Trump’s Washington, Tucker Carlson is a primary supersecret source,” the media writer and Trump chronicler Michael Wolff writes in his forthcoming collection of essays, “Too Famous.” Mr. Wolff, who thanked Mr. Carlson in the acknowledgments of his 2018 book, “Fire and Fury,” explained, “I know this because I know what he has told me, and I can track his exquisite, too-good-not-to-be-true gossip through unsourced reports and as it often emerges into accepted wisdom.”

Stelter even admitted that one “can see Tucker’s fingerprints all over the hardcover” edition of his 2020 book Hoax. But times have changed. When it came time to release the paperback edition, he’d found he “couldn’t stomach” talking to him anymore, presumably because of how increasingly deranged his show has become since Trump’s 2020 loss.

It’s no shock Carlson would be a great source for gossip. Born into a world of insiders, he’s also powerful enough a figure in rightwing media that he has the former president’s ear. What’s more, one source speculates, Carlson’s habit of keeping non-Trumpist media fat with fun stories may explain why he hasn’t suffered the same fate of another Fox News conspiracy theorist, Glenn Beck, whose notorious reign in the Obama era came to a premature end. Had Carlson not made himself useful, the idea goes, journalists would treat him even worse than they do.

Carlson, for the record, denied to Smith that he was a notorious leaker to the “liberal media.” “I don’t know any gossip,” he texted back. “I live in a town of 100 people,” referring to his life in remotest Maine. Then again, in our brave new tech world, gossip doesn’t need to have a zip code to get around.

(Via NYT)

Tucker Carlson has spent much of 2021 miraculously finding one new low after another. He’s compared COVID-19 protocols to Jim Crow. He’s floated a white supremacist conspiracy theory. He’s asked viewers to harass people who wear masks. He’s unleashed weird laughs. And he’s alternated between downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection and trying to explain it away. Last week he spent a lot of time blabbing about a surreal (and debunked) theory that puts the blame for the Capitol siege on the FBI. Most people have laughed at him. But CNN’s Brian Stelter actually did some homework to prove him wrong.

The host devoted a segment Sunday to some important questions about Carlson’s latest cuckoo obsession, which posits that unindicted co-conspirators are government agents. After noting that the deranged theory is “everywhere now,” having been picked up by far right politicians and media, Stelter questioned Carlson’s journalistic bona fides.

“Presumably he asked questions of the FBI and of prosecutors and sources?” Stelter asked, almost certainly rhetorically. He then said he went straight to Carlson’s employers. “So I asked Fox PR executives, did anyone vet Tucker’s reporting? Did the Fox newsroom go through his reporting?”

He had other questions:

“Why haven’t they followed up on it since? Carlson alleged these explosive stories, claiming this is an incredible bombshell. Where is the Fox newsroom? Why isn’t Special Report with Bret Baier covering this story every day? Why isn’t Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace covering this incredible claim right now?”

Predictably, Stelter had yet to receive a response from Fox News. But he thought he had his answers anyway. Carlson, he theorized, is “out there on his own,” doing whatever he wants. And when real journalists question the veracity of his claims, the network, he said, can simply claim it’s “an opinion show and everyone knows it’s an opinion show.”

But, Stelter said, Carlson’s fans don’t think it’s just one guy’s opinion. They “think it’s news,” he said. “They trust Tucker more than they trust real reporters. So what was the betting? What was the process? Why isn’t Fox following up? Why isn’t the newsroom digging into his claims? Why isn’t the newsroom at Fox trying to prove Tucker’s theory?”

These are all valid questions, even if, again, the answers are probably obvious. Indeed, Carlson’s show is the only place where you see this incredible — and, again, already discredited — claim taken seriously. And Stelter surely knows full well that if he wants Fox News to give him honest answers, he shouldn’t hold his breath.

You can watch Stelter’s segment in the video above.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The final round of the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego was a wild one, as the day started with a bunched up leaderboard that only got more crowded as the day wore on — at one point with 10 players within one shot of the lead. As the round continued, a lot of the expected contenders began to fall by the wayside as the grind of a U.S. Open started to yield the types of scores and frustration that we have become accustomed to at golf’s most grueling major.

Among those who were at the top of the leaderboard before backing out was 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who was 5-under and in solo first briefly, before suffering a rather wild collapse on the back nine. After bogeying the 11th and 12th to fall to 3-under, DeChambeau blew his tee shot right on the par-5 13th and again found himself in trouble. As he waited to hit his second shot, things got extra weird as a fan ran out onto the fairway with a golf club and some golf balls and started launching shots off the cliff to the left, dancing before trying to evade security who made an incredible tackle from a golf cart.

Shouts to Rich Beem for capturing this moment the TV cameras wouldn’t show, because “idiots on the course” is a rarity in golf, but if it were ever going to happen, it was going to be on a hole where Bryson was. DeChambeau has become golf’s greatest villain, most notably feuding with Brooks Koepka who has not been shy about how much he hates Bryson, which has led to DeChambeau getting heckled with “Brooksy!” chants constantly.

The fake basketball shot into a juke on security was rather incredible, but the most impressive part of this is the guy that cuts him off with a golf cart, hops out, and tackles him in one motion, an absolutely phenomenal moment in great sports security work.

Taylor Swift has been re-recording her old albums. The first was Fearless (Taylor’s Version), released back in April. Now she’s set to do another. The singer revealed her 2013 album Red would be her next re-recorded record. Her fans were excited after hearing the news. One of them was Taylor’s dad, as she revealed in a Father’s Day post for him on Sunday.

“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads but mostly mine, who called me yesterday to remind me he still has guitar picks from the Red Tour, ‘if they’re needed,’” she wrote in a Twitter post.

“In the land of heartbreak, moments of strength, independence, and devil-may-care rebellion are intricately woven together with grief, paralyzing vulnerability and hopelessness,” she wrote. “Imagining your future might always take you on a detour back to the past. And this is all to say, that the next album I’ll be releasing is my version of Red.”

Taylor is surely due for success with Red (Taylor’s Version) as she saw previously saw Fearless (Taylor’s Version) top the album charts. Her next redo is set to be released to the world in November, so hang tight.

Red (Taylor’s Version) is out 11/19 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

The GOP has long loved to accuse Democrats of insufficient patriotism. It’s reliable red meat to toss their supporters when they have nothing else to say, or if they need to distract them from their own shortcomings. Sometimes they’re weird about it, as in Ted Cruz’s recent, inexplicable video in which he for some reason recites the Pledge of Allegiance. And sometimes they screw it up, as when former Florida governor Rick Scott recently confused the aforementioned Pledge for the National Anthem.

Scott was one of many big time Republicans who spoke at this weekend’s Faith & Freedom Coalition conference. He spent part of his speech angry over the Pledge, which he claims today’s kids don’t know. But then he got the streams crossed, lumping in an entirely separate matter: football players kneeling in support of Black Lives Matter during the National Anthem at football games.

After leading the crowd in their own recitation of the Pledge — which he briefly screwed up — he then screwed up bigly. “We’re living in a nation where these woke, rich, pampered football players are kneeling for the Pledge of Allegiance,” Scott thundered.

Scott didn’t seem to notice his mix-up, continuing to whip up the crowd, telling them that they all have to spend “part of our day” fighting against “this woke mob and radical Democrats who are trying to destroy this country and the values that we grew up with.”

But his error didn’t escape the notice of social media. Many people pointed out that a notorious Republican ex-governor doesn’t seem to know the difference between a song and a spoken recitation.

Others thought it belied his lack of interest in true freedom and democracy.

After putting away the Utah Jazz on Friday night in Game 6, the Clippers headed to Phoenix on Sunday for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against a well rested Suns team. Both squads were down a superstar, as Kawhi Leonard continues to miss time with a knee sprain and Chris Paul finds himself still in COVID-19 protocols at the worst possible time.

That meant all eyes were on their star teammates to step up in a big spot, and both Devin Booker and Paul George delivered for their teams on Sunday afternoon. In the end, Booker and the Suns came out ahead in a 120-114 victory that has everyone hoping for six more games like what we saw on Sunday in what was a game of punches and counterpunches, with both All-Stars putting on a shot-making exhibition.

Booker got his first career triple-double on Sunday, taking over as a scorer and playmaker in Paul’s absence, scoring 40 points on 15-of-29 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Booker did much of his scoring damage in the third quarter, dropping 18 on the Clippers as he abused the drop coverage they kept showing him with Ivica Zubac in the pick-and-roll game, with Patrick Beverley picking up way too high and being in no place to recover and really bother Booker. Like Chris Paul did in Game 4 to close out the Nuggets, Booker went to the same play and the same spot over and over again, scoring at one point 16 straight for the Suns, mostly in the midrange.

Paul George nearly matched Booker shot for shot in the third, scoring 14 of his own as he got hot from long-range, finishing with 34 points on 10-of-26 shooting, five assists, and four rebounds.

In the fourth quarter it was more of the same early for Booker, as George went to the bench for a rest and the Suns pounced on the L.A. bench, this time going to his right to force the Clippers to change up their coverage.

When they did and sent more bodies at him, he started to facilitate in the halfcourt and on the break, with his 10th assist coming in spectacular fashion on a give-and-go with Mikal Bridges for what felt like the early dagger.

The Clippers made a valiant effort at a late rally, with Rajon Rondo and Terance Mann hitting threes to cut the Phoenix lead to two.

But once again Booker had the answer, slipping free for a dunk to push the lead to four and then icing the game with free throws after a Nic Batum missed three on the ensuing Clippers possession. Also stepping up for the Suns was Deandre Ayton, as he has all postseason, with 20 points and nine rebounds, helping the Suns punish the L.A. small-ball lineups in key moments by attacking the rim.

All five Suns starters hit double figures, along with Cam Johnson with 12 points off the bench, as they played a simply magnificent game start to finish. The Clippers were excellent as well. Reggie Jackson once again gave them a needed lift with backcourt scoring with 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting, and DeMarcus Cousins provided a surprising boost off the bench in the first half with 11 points — although this second stint was far less impactful.

In the end, the Suns had more juice, more legs, and the better superstar for the night. George couldn’t score at the same rate in the fourth quarter and without his steady input, and the rest of the Clippers going cold for much of the quarter from three, things slipped away to a point where their late rally was just too little too late. It’s a huge confidence booster for a Suns team that is riding an incredible wave right now from their first two series wins, and has been incredibly composed in key moments, led by their young superstar in Booker. Game 2 will come on Tuesday night and after an instant classic in Game 1, it’s hard not to be excited for the possibility of another banger in Phoenix.