On April 21, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued, at present, the first round of the game has entered a white-hot stage, many teams have played 1-1, including the league's first hot Suns, was pulled back by the Pelicans. In yesterday's game, Pelicans Ingram scored a 30+ quasi-triple-double to lead the team to reverse the Suns to a valuable victory.
For the Suns, the biggest concern is not 1-1, but the core player Booker has injury problems. In the suns and pelicans game, Booker scored 31 points at halftime, and thought he was running for 60 points, but unexpectedly, in the second half, Booker was plagued by injuries and withdrew early, and his score was fixed at 31 points. Paul is 37 years old, and while he's very strong, he's missing an MVP-caliber star around him and it's hard to compete with other playoff teams.
Now, everyone is very concerned about Booker's injury, and today, the results have been released, which is bad news. According to the suns' official announcement, Booker's hamstring was identified as a mild strain, and an MRI examination has been performed, and the return date is undecided. According to the NBA reporter, G3 and G4, Booker basically can't fight. Obviously, Booker's injury is very similar to Harden last year's, although it is not serious, but it takes time to recuperate, and if it is forced to come back, it will not be a good decision for the team and for himself.
The return date is undecided, that is, Booker may miss this series, according to medical sports experts, Booker's injury generally takes 7-10 days to recover, and it is not possible to come back until May, so the Suns may also be ready for Booker's absence from the first round.
Now, everyone is talking about whether the Pelicans will complete the Black Eight Miracle. And the domestic celebrity Su Qun also talked about this topic in the interaction with the fans. Some fans asked, "Teacher Su, Booker is injured, can you still participate in this series?" If you can't play, it feels like the Suns are a bit hanging this round."
And Su Qun's response was very direct, and the possibility of the Pelican Team Black Eight was greatly improved. Booker has basically decided to miss a few games, and now the score is 1-1, and if the other players of the Suns can't stand up in the next three games, the Pelicans may eliminate the Suns before Booker returns.
I have to sigh that the luck of the Suns leader Paul is really too bad. During the Clippers period, he was turned over by the Rockets in three consecutive games, and in the Rockets period, he and Harden led the team to lead the Warriors 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals, but Paul's hamstring was injured, and as a result, he eventually missed the championship.
In last year's finals, Paul led the Suns to a 2-0 lead, and it looked like he was about to win the championship, but he was turned over by the Bucks after winning four consecutive games. In the 21-22 season, Paul led the team to 64 wins and 18 losses in the regular season, almost no one in the West could stop, and the Eastern team also had the advantage, but Booker was injured again and was likely to suffer the first round. If Paul had been luckier, he might have won more than one title by now. Hopefully Booker will return soon, the next 2 games, too important for the Suns, no capital to lose.