The no. 2 Phoenix Suns eliminated the no. 7 Los Angeles Lakers in the first round in 6 games. Much of the Suns’ success this season had to do with the addition of veteran point guard Chris Paul. Unfortunately, Paul has been dealing with a right shoulder injury after bumping into teammate Cam Johnson in Game 1. The shoulder injury hampered Paul throughout the series and it’s unclear when his shoulder will be 100%.
In Game 1, Paul left the game with 9:19 left in the second quarter and came back with 5:32 to go in the first half. When Paul returned to the game, he couldn’t dribble fluidly with his right hand. He was losing his handle and struggled to hit the rim when attempting jump shots. In 36 minutes, Paul finished the game with just seven points (FG 3-8) and eight assists and fortunately, the Suns pulled out the win.
In games 2 and 3, Paul played 23 and 27 minutes respectively, and didn’t have much of an impact on the game. The Lakers won both games to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
In Game 4, Paul looked a lot better with his ball handle and his shooting. He put up 18 points (FG 7-15) and nine assists. The Suns tied the series and things were looking bright for Paul. However, in Game 5 he aggravated his right shoulder when Lakers guard Wesley Matthews was boxing him out.
Despite Paul being in pain, the Suns had strong first halves in games 5 and 6 outscoring the Lakers 128-77 combined. Phoenix was able to hold on to their lead in both games to close out the series.
Paul has suffered through several injuries in his career and a few of them have been at the worst time possible: the playoffs.
In Game 7 of the first round of the 2015 NBA playoffs, Paul had a hamstring injury and fought through it to hit the game-winning shot eliminating the San Antonio Spurs. In the next round, Paul missed the first two meetings against the Houston Rockets and the Clippers lost the series in seven games. In 2016, CP3 missed games 5 and 6 with a broken bone in his hand and the Portland Trail Blazers won that series in the first round.
Also, as a member of the Rockets in the 2018 Western Conference Finals, Paul went down with another hamstring injury against the Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson led Warriors. The Rockets potentially could’ve been NBA champions and CP3 could’ve won his first ring had he played.
Paul has always been a great leader and a floor general that every team needs to be successful. He’s one of the best all-time passers the league has seen, has great handles and is still a good defender at his age. The Suns are a young team who are going to need their point guard to lead them deep into the playoffs as they face the no. 3 Denver Nuggets.
The Nuggets are without their starting point guard Jamal Murray but have guards Austin Rivers and Facundo Campazzo who are tough players who hustle on both ends of the floor. At the core of this Denver squad is Nikola Jokic who is playing at an MVP level being the team’s primary scorer and facilitator.
Hopefully, CP3 is closer to 100% as they face the Nuggets tonight. The NBA world will be watching to see how the veteran feels after a few days of rest.