On January 9, Beijing time, the Sun swept the Heat in a double kill last season, but the first meeting of the season was suspended by the Heat, which lacked Butler and Adebayo. Paul's poor performance is one of the important factors for the Suns to lose, in the veteran point guard showdown, Paul only has 3 of 9 crosshairs, only 9 points, 7 assists and 4 turnovers, inferior to Lowry with 14 points, 13 assists and 2 turnovers, and the last 7 games in 6 games shooting crosshairs less than 50% to pull the alarm.
Paul ushered in the double mile sadness this game:
First, Paul broke through the 39,000-minute mark in the regular season of his career, becoming the 41st man in history and the 4th man in active service.
Second, Paul surpassed Dr. J. Irving in career goals to 63rd in history and 6th in active duty.
When the Heat lacked butler and Adebayor double cores, they still held firmly in the top four places in the East, which shows the resilience of this team. The Suns last became the league's first team to reach 30 wins this season, but in the face of a very resilient Heat matchup, the Suns played a very sad performance, and were continuously suppressed by opponents.
The Suns conceded 71 points in the first half, trailing by 21 points in the first two quarters and at one point being pulled away by the Heat by a 27-point gap. Paul was not able to activate the Suns' team offensive, and even though Ayton, Crowder and McGee returned, the Suns' performance became worse. Paul had only 7 points and 4 assists in 2 of 4 of the first two quarters, and his overall performance was acceptable, which was also in line with his consistent organizational performance this season.
However, paul's efficiency declined in the second half, and he only scored 2 points in the second two quarters of 1-of-5, but only 3 assists in the second half. Even if the Suns were once close to the score at the start of the final quarter, it was difficult to stop Lowry's continuous clever passes to activate the Heat offensive, and the Suns were once again pulled apart and lost.
Paul's performance on both the offensive and organizational ends of this game was completed by Lowry, and Paul's number of mistakes was more than Lowry's, which is undoubtedly quite a rare thing. Fortunately, Paul has delivered 7 assists with the help of this game, and he has delivered a total of 390 assists this season, averaging just 10 assists per game in 39 games, continuing to lead the assist list this season, becoming one of the few comforts for the Suns to lose.
(Text/Drunken Floating Life)