Last year's playoff Suns reached the finals, somewhat "not worthy of the name". Because they had fallen behind the Lakers 1-2 in the first round, they won three consecutive games "by injuring their eyebrows" and advanced 4-2 by a big score; in the second round, they met the Nuggets without Murray, and the Western Conference Finals met the Clippers without Leonard, which rushed all the way to the Finals.
In the finals, when the Suns met relatively healthy Bucks, they lost the series four times in a row with a 2-0 lead. Because of this, the outside world always feels that the reason why the Sun was able to break into the finals last year was somewhat fluke, and thought that it would be difficult for them to have a chance to reach the finals in the new season...
Playing the league's first record, the Suns are questioned that they can't even pass the first round of the playoffs?
After the start of the new season, in the face of the outside world's doubts about them, the Sun did not choose to directly "punch the face", but used the "first suppress and then rise" method - successively lost to the Nuggets, Blazers, kings, and started with a bad record of 1 win and 3 losses.
And the poor start record also made the Suns usher in an overwhelming amount of criticism. However, the Suns' "punch in the face" came quickly, and after four games, they quickly regained their form in last year's playoffs. In the end, the Suns, led by Paul and Booker, played a 18-game winning streak and squeezed back into the first echelon of the West.
Even the Suns were still in the second half of the season, and when Curry's personal performance fell back, he pushed the Warriors to the top of the league's record list. And finally entered the playoffs with a 64-18 league first record...
However, although the Suns achieved the first place in the league, the outside world is not optimistic that they will once again reach the final, and even successfully win the championship. On the contrary, they are more optimistic about the Warriors, Bucks, Nets, Philadelphia and other teams, because these teams have at least one or more stars who can play "superstar" performances, even if the overall record is not bright enough.
On the contrary, in the eyes of the outside world, Paul has long lost his courage, Booker's offensive firepower is strong but not stable enough, and Ayton is not even able to reach the All-Star level. After all, the playoffs are the stage of superstars, and the lack of "supergiant" level star blessing is the key to the sun being "underestimated".
Especially after losing series G2 against the Pelicans in the first round because Booker was injured, the outside world believed that the Sun had a good chance of being "black eight" by the Pelicans. Without Booker's offensive blessing, paul + Ayton alone, they can't even get through the first round of the playoffs.
Because from the data point of view alone, Booker averaged 26.8 points per game, 5.0 boards, 4.8 assists, 46.6% shooting rate, and was the biggest firepower output point in the Suns lineup. Paul's 14.6 points + 49.3% shooting percentage, Ayton's 17.2 points + 63.6% shooting percentage, Bridges's 14.3 points + 53.5% shooting percentage, Johnson's 12.4 points + 46.2% shooting percentage.
With their offensive firepower, it's hard to compensate for the impact of Booker's absence. So in the context of Booker's 2-3 weeks of missing out on a hamstring strain , not only do the outside world think that the Suns will be difficult to rush out of the West, but even some fans and the media believe that the Pelicans really have a very high probability of "black eight" Suns.
After all, the combination of "Ingram + McCollum" cannot be underestimated at all. The power and chemistry of their joint efforts have gotten better and better as they have been working together for longer and longer...
The last quarter blasted 19 points! Paul led the team to beat the Pelicans to give a big 2-1 lead
In the context of forcing the series to be 1-1 and Booker was unable to play, the Pelicans actually wanted to win G3. Because winning G3 will not only give the Pelicans a lead, but also give them the confidence of "Black Eight".
So in this game, Ingram and McCollum played extra "hard", the former shot 11 of 19, got 34 points, 7 boards and 2 assists; the latter shot 11 of 23, got 30 points, 4 boards and 7 assists; bent on relying on their own ability to beat the Suns without Booker's blessing. However, the Suns, under Paul's control, not only did not pull away from the Pelicans, but maintained a slight lead.
And when the Pelicans wanted to harvest the game in the final quarter, Paul, who scored only 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting in the first three quarters, stepped forward in the final quarter. On 7-of-10 shooting in the quarter, he blasted 19 points, 3 boards and 2 assists, leading the team to hold the advantage and beat the Pelicans 114-111. Without Booker's absence, he led the team to a big 2-1 lead...
While the Suns once again took the lead in the series, Booker's 2-3 weeks of recuperation doomed him to not be able to make a comeback in the first round of the series. Even in the second round of the playoffs, Booker may not be able to catch up in time. So then the Suns want to advance to the second round, want to advance to the Western Conference Finals, and have to watch paul, Ayton and others play.
So, even if Booker can't come back in time, Paul can lead the team to the Western Conference Finals?
1. Paul's offensive firepower was not as weak as he thought. After Booker's injury absence, the biggest impact on the Suns was the lack of offensive firepower that averaged 26.8 points + 46.6% shooting per game. But others on the Suns, such as Bridges and Ayton, are not known for scoring.
Therefore, after Booker's absence, the gap in offensive firepower cannot be filled, and the outside world will generally be unoptimistic about the sun. Paul's personal offensive firepower is actually habitually ignored by the outside world...
After all, in the past three years of regular season, Paul has only contributed 17.6 points + 48.9% shooting rate, 16.4 points + 49.9% shooting rate, 14.7 points + 49.3 shooting rate per game, and the average score per game has shown a downward trend year by year. Especially in the first sixteen years of Paul's career, he has never averaged less than 15 points per game, but in the new season, he has averaged only 14.7 points per game...
Even though Paul still averaged 10.8 assists per game in the new season, the decline on the offensive end was visible to the naked eye. However, in fact, Paul's scoring ability has always been underestimated, just like in the previous two years of the playoffs, he can average 21.9 points + 49.1% shooting rate per game, 19.2 points + 49.7% shooting rate, this year even if the regular season offensive performance is poor, he can also contribute to the playoffs of about 20 points + 50% shooting rate of the offensive performance.
2, with the league's top offensive and defensive system, the Sun is not as dependent on Booker as imagined. The reason why the Suns were able to beat the league's 29 teams in the new season and play the first record of 64 wins and 18 losses in the league was not luck, but their top offensive and defensive efficiency.
The new season bridges + Ayton provides the team with a high-quality defense; while Paul + Booker maximizes the team's offensive firepower; so the Suns can play the league's first record with the defensive efficiency of "second in the league" + offensive efficiency of "fifth in the league".
Today, although Booker is injured and absent, the Suns' offensive and defensive system can still function normally. Even as long as Paul can play on the offensive end, then the Suns can minimize the impact of Booker's absence, minimizing the impact of Booker's absence. This is the main reason why the Sun was injured in Booker but was able to defeat the Pelicans.
3, the first round, the second round of opponents, is not too difficult. The top offensive and defensive strength + Paul's offensive firepower at key moments can indeed minimize the negative impact of Booker's absence. However, As the team's first scorer, Booker may be able to replace it with an "explosion" at a certain time and in a certain number of games, but it is difficult to replace it for a long time...
Fortunately, the first record in the West allowed the Suns to avoid early encounters with the Warriors and Grizzlies, two difficult teams. From the perspective of playoff opponents, even if Booker can't come back in time, with the team's overall offensive and defensive strength + Paul's key offensive firepower, the Suns want to defeat the Pelicans to advance to the second round, and it is not too difficult to beat the Lone Rangers or Jazz to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
In summary, although Booker's absence has had a great impact on the overall strength of the sun. But in fact, before encountering an opponent with equal overall strength, even without Booker, Paul can basically lead the team to win. Even from the first two rounds of the playoffs, even if Booker can't come back in time, Paul can lead the team to the Western Conference Finals. So as long as Booker can make a comeback before the team meets the "league's top powerhouse", the Sun still has the hope of reaching the finals and even winning the championship...