Beijing time on April 18, the NBA playoffs continued, the Suns defeated the Pelicans 110-99 at home, the big score 1-0 lead, this game, the Suns came up to show the strength of the league's first, the first quarter 28-16 led the opponent by 12 points, the second quarter, the Suns continued to work hard, and played 25-18, half-time has led by 19 points.
The gap between the two teams' records is huge, and the outside world also generally believes that this round of the game may be 4-0, originally thought, the game is like this, the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Pelicans suddenly exerted their strength, and they trailed by 22 points at most to 73-80, only 7 points behind.
Then Chris Paul stepped forward:
— With 11 minutes and 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Paul fouled and hit both free throws
— With 10:41 left in the fourth quarter, Paul hit a three-pointer
— With 9 minutes and 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Paul scored another three points
— With 8 minutes and 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Paul scored a third consecutive three-pointer
— With 8:03 left in the fourth quarter, Paul hit a layup
— With 7 minutes and 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Paul hit a mid-range shot
— With 6:01 left in the fourth quarter, Paul hit a layup
After a wave of performances, Paul's personal score went from 11 to 28, and the Suns returned the score to 99-85, once again establishing a 14-point lead.
In the end, Paul played a total of 35 minutes, shooting 12 of 16, 4 of 6 from three points, 2 of 2 from the free throw line, and had 30 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 steals, including the fourth quarter, Paul alone scored 19 of the team's 31 points, and his plus-minus on the field reached +20, the highest in the team.
What is the concept? Paul did not have a 30+ in the regular season this season, and the highest score was only 27 points, but he scored 30 points in the first game of the playoffs, in addition, the last time Paul won the "30+10" in the playoffs was four years ago, in the second round of G5 against the Jazz, Paul scored 41 points and 10 assists, which was the first time in his career to reach the Western Conference Finals.
It is worth mentioning that after this game, Paul, 36 years old and 346 days old, also became the oldest player in NBA history to score 30 points and 10 assists in a single game in the playoffs, and the previous record was held by Nash (2010 Western Conference Finals G1, 36 years and 85 days).
Chris Paul, the older the more demon.
In the regular season, Paul played in 65 games for the Suns, averaging 14.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 10.8 assists per game, his personal offensive score is a career low, but the number of assists is the third highest in his career, and he has only averaged 2.4 turnovers per game, and his true shooting rate is 58.1%.
When people are discussing whether Booker (who played in 68 games) should be an MVP candidate, few people will remember that Paul was fourth in MVP before he was injured, and his presence was even more influential than Booker:
--Paul was present, and the Suns had a 10.0-point net win per 100 rounds (Booker was 9.5 points)
Paul wasn't there, and the Suns had a 4.8-point win per 100 rounds (Booker was 4.7 points)
It doesn't say that it must be higher than the Suns' double core, but countless games have proved that Paul can become the lower limit of a team, and the Suns want to go further, after all, they have to look at young people such as Booker and Ayton.
Interestingly, Paul talked about taking over the final quarter in a post-game interview, saying: "I don't shoot much, but that doesn't mean I can't shoot" — Paul averaged 2.8 points per game in key moments of the season (within 5 points of the last 5 minutes), shooting 56.8% from the field and 40.0% from three-point range, which can be said to be a very, very big heart.
Of course, this is just a victory.
In this game, the Suns still exposed some problems, such as they were blown up by the Pelicans at the rebounding end, the number of rebounds in the whole game was 35-55, and Varan alone grabbed 13 offensive rebounds on their heads, which will be a huge hidden danger.
As we said, the Suns want to play in the finals again and win the championship, more depends on young people such as Booker and Ayton, after all, last year's finals have proved a point, once Paul is strangled, the rest of the Suns must stand up more, I hope that this year, the old cannon can realize the dream of a championship.