Phoenix Suns set open playoffs Sunday against New Orleans Pelicans

The Phoenix Suns players planned to check out the final play-in tournament game Friday night that determined their first round opponent at Devin Booker's house.

"It's not a bad spot to watch a game," Suns forward Cam Johnson said with a smile.

Their coach, Monty Williams, was going to watch it from his home office.

Children were allowed to enter.

"My kids come in and out," Williams said. "I have a chair in my office just for my kids so they can come in and relax. It's basketball. Look, it's not war. I don't have any overdue bills. Nobody is asking me to go fight for my country. It's still a game."

The Suns witnessed the New Orleans Pelicans top the Los Angeles Clippers, 105-101, to earn the eighth seed and open the Western Conference playoffs against them.

Game 1 of this best-of-7 series is 6 p.m. Sunday at Footprint Center. Game 2 is Tuesday in Phoenix before shifting to New Orleans for Game 3 Friday.

Games 1 and 2 will be broadcast on TNT. Game 3 will be on ESPN.

NBA: SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | STATISTICS

The Clippers were without Paul George, who missed Friday's game after testing positive for COVID-19. Last year, the Suns were without Chris Paul for Game 1 and 2 of the conference finals against Clippers, but took a 2-0 series lead without their leader.

The Suns won the series in six games in making their third finals appearance in franchise history.

The Suns finished 3-1 against New Orleans.

The Pelicans' lone win came Feb. 25 in Phoenix, 117-102.

The Clippers won their two games against the Suns in Los Angeles with the latter one ending, 113-109, after building a 39-point lead.

The Suns rested starters Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton and Jae Crowder, but rallied to pull within four late in the fourth quarter before losing by the same margin.

Phoenix has the No. 1 overall seed as they finished the regular season with the NBA's best record at 64-18.

The Pelicans started the season 1-12 under Green, who was the lead assistant in Phoenix under Monty Williams the previous two seasons.

Playing without injured Zion Williamson (foot) all season, the Pelicans (36-46) turned their season around to make the play-in as a ninth seed.

The Clippers (42-40) were minus Kawhi Leonard (knee) all season and didn't have Paul George for three months with an elbow injury, but ended the regular season as the eighth seed.

However, they lost Tuesday at Minnesota in the play-in, but hosted New Orleans in the final game of the play-in for the eighth seed.

Without George, the the Clippers trailed by as many as 16 in the first half, led by as many as 13 in the second half, but lost by four.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pelicans top Clippers, face Suns in Game 1 Sunday