On April 23, Beijing time, Booker may be absent for 2-3 weeks due to injury, what should the Suns do? Before today's G3 game, the Suns were in a very passive situation. They lost to the Pelicans in the previous game, and if Booker doesn't make a comeback in time, the Suns could be "black eight" if they don't make a comeback. At a critical moment in G3 today, 37-year-old Chris Paul stepped forward.
In this game, the Suns narrowly defeated the Pelicans 114-111 on the road, and the score came to 2-1, and the Suns regained home advantage. Ayton broke out on the inside in the first quarter and scored 13 points, the second quarter the two teams were in a tug-of-war, and in the third quarter the Pelicans played a 12-0 attack wave led by CJ McCollum, with only one point left between the two sides. In the final quarter, when Paul's performance moment came, he scored 19 points in a single quarter with a steady mid-range shooting, and finally the Suns won away from home, and the total score was rewritten to 2-1.
Without Booker, the Suns would have one less core and one tough firepower output point. But don't forget, the tactical core of the Suns is actually Paul, and without Paul, the Suns would not be the best team in the West or even the league. In fact, in G1, Paul alone bombed the beautiful data of 30 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds, this game Paul broke out again, 10 of 18 shots in 40 minutes, 1 of 6 of three-pointers, 7 of 8 free throws, and cut down 28 points, 4 rebounds, 14 assists and 1 steal, the number of mistakes was 0, plus or minus as high as +10.
It can be said that without Paul's inexplicable mid-range shooting score in the last quarter, the Suns will definitely return home! The first round of the playoffs will go directly from the Suns to the younger Pelicans. But the experienced Paul did not do it, as Paul said after the G1 blast of 30 points, he is not unable to score, not that he can not shoot, but usually his first choice is how to let his teammates score, how to let the Suns win, his scoring data is not important.
Now in this G3 we can see that Paul did not break his word at all, he does have first-class scoring ability, but usually when there are Players such as Booker, Ayton, Johnson, etc., Paul does not have to score points himself, he just needs to send basketball comfortably and in time to his teammates, watching his teammates score, this is the role of super point guards.
Let's look at another statistic - the Suns were completely inaccurate in three-point shooting in this game, and the Suns players made a total of 26 three-point shots in the whole game, but only hit 4 of them! Look at the Pelicans, 11 of 32 three-pointers, and the Pelicans have 21 more points than the Suns. But in Paul's eyes, the 21-point gap is nothing at all, and Paul uses his best mid-range shooting to eat away at his opponent's three-point advantage little by little. As Paul said, it's not that he can't score, it's that he doesn't have to "get out" in his usual games.
Now that the Suns Booker is injured and the moment Paul scores, the 37-year-old superstar is absolutely unambiguous. It can be said that after the end of G1, and in connection with today's performance, what Paul said completely counts! In today's league where three-pointers have become the mainstream means of scoring, it is very rare that Paul can still insist on shooting points. Paul's insoluble shot is too critical, coupled with his epic assist ability to connect the entire Suns, even if Booker continues to be absent, the Suns will not have a problem in the first round.