The NBA playoffs first round of contention continued, with the Suns, who finished first in the league in the regular season and broke the team's all-time record, sitting at home against the Pelicans, who only finished eighth through the playoffs.
After experiencing the baptism of last season's finals, this Sun team ushered in a transformation this season, the whole team played a top offensive and defensive performance, the team has no obvious shortcomings, firmly occupies the first position in the league, and is one of the biggest favorites in this season's championship.
In contrast, the Pelicans only ranked ninth in the regular season, but won two games in the playoffs and finally won the eighth place.
As soon as the game began, the Suns showed absolute strength, completely suppressing the Pelicans at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and with Booker's efficient play, the Suns took an early double-digit lead.
The Pelicans scored just 16 points in a single quarter, and the Suns had a 12-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
The Pelicans were still in a dudy state in the second quarter, and the Suns stretched the point difference to 20 points, and by the end of the half, they had a huge 19-point lead.
Easy to fight again, the Pelicans gradually found the offensive state, coupled with the advantage of the inside line, began to constantly eat into the score.
On the other hand, the Suns, after taking a big lead, both the enthusiasm and the overall sense of fighting have declined significantly, and the three quarters have ended, and the lead is only 8 points.
Entering the final quarter of the scramble, Paul stood up, faced the Pelicans who constantly set off a wave of counterattacks, successive hits on the offensive end, and finally the Suns defeated the Pelicans 110-99, winning the series opening red, leading 1-0.
Throughout the game, although the Pelicans once forced the point difference to single digits, the initiative was still in the hands of the Suns, because the performance of the suns' three cores was very stable.
In the whole game, Paul played 35 minutes, shot 12 of 16, and efficiently scored 30 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, becoming the oldest player in the playoffs to score at least 30 points and 10 assists.
In the final quarter, when the Pelicans chased points, they scored 19 points in a single quarter to help the team stabilize the situation, and the positive and negative value of the whole game was as high as +20.
Booker got into shape at the start of the game, helping the team establish a lead early, playing 40 minutes, shooting 8-of-19, with 25 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assist.
In the first and third quarters, Booker delivered 10 and 11 points respectively, which was the key to the Suns' huge 20-point lead.
Ayton's performance was equally remarkable, playing 34 minutes, shooting 10-of-15, and getting 21 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 blocks.
On the other hand, the Pelicans, although the team lost the game, showed the resilience of the dark horse team in the second half of the game.
In particular, the performance of the interior Varan completely crushed Ayton, playing for 30 minutes and bombarding the big double-double with 18 points, 25 rebounds and 3 assists.
Of the 25 rebounds, 13 were frontcourt rebounds, and the Suns only got 35 rebounds in the whole game, and it was such a huge interior advantage that allowed the Pelicans to force the point difference to single digits in the final quarter.
Unfortunately, the two big guns on the outside did not give a good enough performance, CJ had 25 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists on 9-of-25 shooting, and Ingram had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on 6-of-17 shooting.
Even so, the Pelicans kept the game suspense to the final minute, at least proving that they had every chance of beating the Suns.
Judging from this season's game, the pelicans have a slim chance of wanting a black eight, but if they can steal 1-2 wins in the series, it will also cause a lot of trouble for the Suns.