Mt. Tenno, the sun takes down.
In the first round of G5, the Suns won 112-97 at home to the Pelicans, the big score was rewritten to 3-2, this game, Paul threw a slump of only 4 points, played 39 minutes, shot 8 of 18, 6 of 6 from the free throw line, and scored 22 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.
It is worth mentioning that Paul scored 8 points in the first quarter and scored 16 points in the first half, which is paul's highest score in the first half of this series - Paul has clearly strengthened his aggressiveness, he really wants to win, although in the second half, he was also defended by Alvarado to 8 seconds but in the half, but the overall performance of the whole game, Paul's performance is still excellent.
However, as far as this game is concerned, Bridges's performance may be better than Paul's.
Bridges scored only seven points in the first half, but in the second half of the two quarters, he scored 11 points and 13 points respectively, and after the whole game, Bridges shot a total of 17 shots, 12 of 17, 4 of 3 three-pointers, 3 of 3 free throws, had 31 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, and his playing time reached 46 minutes and 54 seconds, in other words, only 1 minute of rest.
31 points is Bridges' playoff career highest score, he also became the first player in the history of the Suns to playoff 30+ in a single game and 100% three-point shooting rate (at least 4 shots), it is worth mentioning that the last two attacks of the game were all scored by Bridges, and he announced the victory of the Suns' key battle with two dunks.
In addition to his excellent performance on the offensive end, Bridges' defensive performance was also very impressive, he delivered a total of 4 blocks and 1 steal, including 4 blocks, 1 to Ingram, 1 to CJ McCollum, and 2 to Graham.
Another statistic is that the players against Bridges in this game shot a total of 4 of 19 shots, adding up to only 8 points in total, and there were 4 turnovers, including:
— Against McCollum with 7:13, McCollum scored 0 points on 0-of-8 shooting
- Ingram scored 4 points on 7:02 and Ingram shot 2-of-7
It is no exaggeration to say that in this game, Bridges is the MVP and DPOY of the whole game.
Looking back at last summer, the Suns signed Bridges in just four years and 90 million, which is really worth it.
This season, Bridges has played in 82 games for the Suns, averaging 14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game, a career high in scoring and assists, while shooting 53.4%/36.9%/83.4% of the three shots and shooting 62.7% of the true shooting.
Bridges has been excellent for two things:
1, healthy, career so far, Bridges has never missed a game, this season averaged 34.8 minutes per game, the playoffs improved to 41.4 minutes, a single 47 minutes is also a record for all players in this year's playoffs
2, efficiency, counting this season, Bridges has been three consecutive seasons of true shooting rate of more than 62%, the past two years were 66.7%, 62.7% respectively
In addition, Bridges' defense has also improved this year, and even almost won DPOY - in the final DPOY voting results, Bridges got 22 first votes, 25 second votes, 17 third votes, and ranked second in the league with a total score of 202 points, second only to Smart (257 points, 37 first votes).
Obviously, Bridges has become one of the best 3D players in the league, and his three-pointers, empty cuts, and defense are also major reasons why the Suns have been at the top of the league all season - in this game, Bridges really showed his advantages.
Hear what teammates and opponents had to say about Kwabridges after the game:
Paul: Bridges is perfectly capable of doing that, he's been like that all season
Monty: Unfortunately we can't clone more Bridges
Ayton: Look at Bridges, he's our Iron Man
CJ: Bridges played aggressively and he could score in a variety of ways
However, this round of the series is not over, the Pelicans are a very tenacious team, and McCollum and Ingram have played well in the past few games, especially Ingram, in the absence of Booker, Paul has also been depressed, Bridges will stand up like this, I hope that in the next game, he can continue the state.