Who is the best performer so far in this year's playoffs? Is Jimmy Butler amazingly efficient? Or Jason Tatum, who swept the Nets? Are it two strong former MVPs Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo? Or the alternate supernovas Luka Doncic and Ja Morant?
If I had only one ballot in my hand, I wouldn't hesitate to vote for Chris Paul, who is about to turn 37.
It was a playoff game where old and new forces alternated, LeBron James could only act as a spectator, and Kevin Durant, although barely squeezed on the stage through the playoffs, was bombed without winning. Among the older generation of superstars, it seems that only Curry is still trying to save the dignity of that era.
No! In fact, there is another person who is saying no with his excellent state and performance, like the relentless years. He is Paul, a veteran who has been questioned in his career and has never been truly recognized, a super "OG" who has been in the league for four years before Curry.
Paul entered the league as a first-round No. 4 pick in 2005, and other top players of the same year, such as Delon Williamson, Raymond Felton, Charlie Villanowy, Andrew Bynum, and Danny Granger, all now sound more like legendary characters, with paul alone, still active in the league and as always.
Paul's career has reached a considerable height from the beginning. He was the rookie of the year 2006 and was named an All-Star in his third season, the same year in the league first team and defensive second team, leading the Hornets to the playoffs.
Not only that, for the first time on the playoff stage, Paul showed a superstar style, averaging 24.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, as well as the league's first 11.3 assists and 2.3 steals, the first round 4-1 easy elimination of the Lone Ranger, although the division semifinals and Spurs fought hard seven games regrettably out, but the future looks bright.
Surprisingly, however, it became an insurmountable peak in Paul's career, and in the next 9 years, he only missed the playoffs due to his own injury, but he never went further and reached the second round. "West Finals Floor" has become an intractable stigma label behind the league's first point guard, and as for the championship, it seems to be an unattainable dream.
In fact, Paul's dream journey has been constantly frustrated, and there are many unexpected factors that play a role in it - working with Kobe Bryant to be blocked by the league, and several key moments to encounter injuries, all of which cannot be reversed by human beings. After finally breaking into the Western Conference Finals with Harden in 2018, he was more like "spending all his luck", G5 injuries led to the Rockets out, and the next 2018-19 season, personal status was significantly declined, so that almost everyone once thought that his career had entered the countdown.
People did not expect that Paul, who was swept out of the country by the Rockets as a garbage contract in the summer of 2019, actually "did not come to the extreme", first led the Thunder to the playoffs, re-proved their value, and last season made the sun reborn, from 10 consecutive years of lottery, to all the way to the Finals!
This season's Paul, a year older, but seems to be more energetic than a year ago, he not only won the assist king again after 7 years, but also led the Suns to an excellent record of 64 wins and 18 losses, winning the regular season championship with absolute advantage, breaking the team history record. In the playoffs, when Booker was injured and missed the 3rd, 4th and 5th series in the first round, Paul played an MVP performance and led the Suns to successfully eliminate the powerful Pelicans.
In the first and third games of the series, Paul scored 19 points in the last quarter twice, killing the game by himself, and the sixth game was a 14-shot shot, 33 points and 8 assists, playing the most "perfect" offensive performance in playoff history.
In the six-game series against the Pelicans, Paul averaged 36.8 minutes per game because of Booker's injury, and while playing a gorgeous stat of 22.3 points and 11.3 assists, it was clear that this was not the situation that the Suns with long-term goals wanted to see. So in the division semifinals, with Booker's return, the Suns deliberately let Paul "paddle the water". In the first game of the series, he only played 28 minutes and 45 seconds, and when the first half was not divided, he was given more than 11 minutes of rest.
Today's game, Paul still had obvious reservations in the first half of the game. In the first quarter, he only shot once, and after halftime, he only got 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
However, in the face of the Lone Ranger's fiery three-pointer feeling today, and the foul crisis of Ayton and McGee' two major interior lines, the Sun smelled a hint of danger, so Paul was "forced to open" and began to take over the game.
According to statistics, Paul, who shot 2 of 6 in the first two quarters today, hit 9 of them in 10 shots in the second half. Especially after the start of the fourth quarter, when Jason Bronson chased the score to 86-89 with a three-pointer, Paul sheathed his sword and followed by six consecutive shots, including a three-pointer, two breakthroughs, two signature mid-range dry pulls, and a 2+1.
In just 3 minutes and 54 seconds, Paul scored 14 points with a perfect shooting performance, accompanied by 2 assists, completely relying on his personal ability, to instigate a decisive 19-7 offensive wave, directly taking away the game.
The mighty sun finally took a 2-0 lead, one foot had stepped into the Western Conference Gate, and Paul's ordinary performance under the gods in the fourth quarter also caused heated discussion again.
According to statistics, so far in the playoffs this year, Paul's shooting rate in the fourth quarter is as high as 63.8%, and the fourth quarter has a total of 82 points and 20 assists, both of which are the first in the league! Behind him, Morant finished second with 72 points and 19 assists in the final quarter, but his 41.1 percent efficiency was a far cry from the "old cannon."
Seeing his old friend's fiery performance, LeBron James couldn't help but chant his name on social media: CP3!!!!! Just three characters, followed by 5 exclamation points, containing how much appreciation, how much envy, and perhaps, there are many regrets about not being able to work together.
In the 2021-22 regular season MVP competition, Paul failed to make the final shortlist, but for him, it doesn't seem to matter.
What he really cares about is another MVP trophy.