Trailing by 10 points in the first half, the Suns completed a comeback in the second half to beat the Pelicans 115-109 and advance to the next round with a 4-2 aggregate score. In the Western Conference semifinals, the Suns' opponent was the Lone Ranger. In this campaign, Paul had 33 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists from 100% shooting, and set a record for the number of consecutive shots in a single game in playoff history on 14-of-14 shooting. Heavenly gods under the mortals!
In an interview after the game, Chris Paul was somewhat choked up.
The Smoothie King Center, which has been extremely popular since the beginning of the playoffs, has also faded the hustle and bustle at this moment. Although the Pelicans failed to win the series, everyone in the arena witnessed a performance that will go down in history.
Chris Paul, 36, scored 33 points on 14-of-14 in the sixth game of the Suns' pelicans series to lead the Suns to a 4-2 aggregate finish. Throughout NBA history, there has never been a player who scored 33 points in the playoffs with 100 percent shooting. Considering Paul's age, the way he plays and where he is on the pitch, all of this is naturally even more incredible. What's more, Paul's 14th goal in this game is still the one that determines the victory of this battle and even the series, what a great performance.
"I've spoken to Monti and I'm going to be aggressive in this game. We need performances like that, and it's the team pushing me forward. Paul said after the game.
In fact, this is not the first time paul has played such a good performance in the promotion battle after winning the match point. In the first round of the 2015 Western Conference, Paul led the Clippers to defeat defending champion Spurs, and he hit a final-minute shot. In the sixth game of the 2018 Western Conference Semifinals, Paul scored 41 points and 10 assists without a single error in the whole game, relying on his own inexplicable play to knock on the door of the Western Conference Finals. In the fourth game of the 2021 Western Conference Semifinals, Paul scored 41 points again, leading the team to sweep the Nuggets to advance. And in the sixth game of the 2021 Western Conference Finals, Paul led the team to eliminate the Speedboats with 41 points, 8 assists and 0 turnovers, knocking on the door of the Finals.
However, there has not been a game in which Paul's performance has been so legendary. Before Paul, Larry McNichol scored 28 points on 12-of-12 in the second game of the 1975 Western Conference Semifinals, and Nene scored 28 points on 12-of-12 in the fourth game of the 2017 Western Conference. Both are interior players, and both position and style of play are destined to make it easier for them to perform more efficiently in a game. But Paul is a defender player in his early eights, and it is too difficult to "shoot out of 100" in a single game in the playoffs.
Even more unbelievable is that Paul didn't have any baskets to score in this campaign. Flipping through his shots, it's basically the end of the mid-range position. On the one hand, this has something to do with the Pelicans' fact that they are not good at defensive blocking. From the beginning of the series to the present, the Pelicans have never managed to block Paul and Ayton. They have tried to change their defenses, and they have also tried to pinch the attack, and the effect is not particularly good. In this campaign, Willie Green began to let Alvarado and Herbert Jones go around the cover to contain Paul's personal attack, but the effect was still not ideal. On the other hand, it stems from Paul's career for more than a decade as a decade of investment in mid-range projection. It's no exaggeration to say that Paul is now one of the most effective midscorers in NBA history.
In last season's playoffs, Paul hit 67 of 129 shots from mid-range. In the first round of this year, Paul further enhanced his performance. After this campaign, Paul has hit a total of 22 hits in the last six games, a staggering 66.7 percent.
However, the data still doesn't even show how well Paul has performed in this series. Cp3 said in a post-game interview: "The team needed me to show this kind of performance, but it was actually the Pelicans' excellent performance that inspired me to do this. As he said, not many people would have thought that the Suns would play so hard when the series didn't start. Booker was injured in The Second Game of the Series, pushing the Suns to the edge of the cliff at one point.
But often the more such moments, the more they can reflect the ability and level of a star player. After Booker retired from injury, Paul took the team. In addition to today's record-going performance, Paul scored 19 points at the end of Game 3 of the series, and the Battle of King Mountain delivered 22 points and 11 assists. Even in the series, there were four points in a single quarter, or an embarrassing moment when He was forced by Alvarado to make a mistake, paul still played an unparalleled series.
In six games, Paul averaged 22.3 points and 11.3 assists per game, and his effective shooting percentage was an exaggerated 61.1%. Even more incredibly, Paul delivered a total of 68 assists, but only nine turnovers.
However, CP3 was particularly light after the game. He has been talking about his past with the city of New Orleans, and seems to be reminding himself of his original intentions. Paul started his career with the Hornets (the predecessor of the Pelicans), and championships have always been his goal. Last season, Paul reached the closest place to the championship, but unfortunately the Suns were overturned by their opponents in a 2-0 lead. This season, the suns have made a comeback and encountered setbacks in the first round, but Paul used his strength to dispel the haze in front of him, and now that Booker has returned, the team is back on track, and they are still the number one hot candidates for the championship.
Paul, who shoots 100 percent, deserves a 100-point season, and his great journey has only just begun.
Wen | Ji Mengnian
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