Chris Paul is basically playing with one arm as his postseason injury curse continues, big blow for the Suns NBA play-offs run.
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The Los Angeles Lakers escaped, in every sense of the word, with a 109-102 victory over the Phoenix Suns in their NBA play-offs game on Tuesday. Thus they brought their first round series to 1-1 as the scene shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday. Anthony Davis led the way for L.A. with 34 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Dennis Schroder was superb. LeBron James was strangely deferential throughout most of the night. However, that was before sticking two fadeaways and a three-pointer to essentially ice the game late in the fourth quarter.
The Suns were right in the game. It’s a credit to Devin Booker, who had a poor shooting night but muscled his way to 31 points on 17 of 17 free throws.
Props to Cameron Payne, who posted 19 points and seven assists in crunch time. Deandre Ayton is coming of age in front of our eyes. He finished with 22 points on Tuesday and has made 21 of his 24 shots in this series.
The Lakers played their championship defence, but surely that was an effort aided by Chris Paul’s limitations. When Paul was on the floor, the Lakers were afforded the luxury of basically ignoring him as a scorer/playmaker.
They were able to double-team Booker, who looked out of sync trying to assume Paul’s normal half-court initiator role.
Chris Paul’s shoulder is the major talking point of the match. They’re calling it a contusion, but it doesn’t really matter what you call it. Paul basically played with one arm. He took just five shots and scored six points in just 23 minutes.
Paul is one of the best clutch players in the world. Yet Monty Williams couldn’t even afford to have him in the game to close the fourth quarter.
This season, Paul and the Suns enjoyed an extraordinary campaign, but the bug has bitten Paul again. They will hold out hope that Paul’s condition will improve before the series potentially slips away.
But right now, it doesn’t look good. Unless you’re a Lakers fan.
