Does State Farm provide insurance for those who come up short in the brightest of lights? Say, like, Chris Paul? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Clearly, it doesn’t. With the series on the line in Game 7 and likely his best/possibly last chance to finally win a championship, Paul shrunk and sent Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks off to the Western Conference Finals to take on the Golden State Warriors.
Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns lost in embarrassing fashion
Sunday’s 123-90 win knocked the Phoenix Suns out of the playoffs, causing a promising season that featured 64 regular-season victories comes to an unceremonious close. Actually, forget unceremonious. It was downright embarrassing.
When Doncic rained his first three shots and showed a high level of confidence, it was clear that he would have a good night. Yet, no one expected Chris Paul and the Suns to fall flat on their faces and let the visitors from Texas have a party in the desert.
Doncic scored 35 points, Spencer Dinwiddie scored 30 off the bench, and Jalen Brunson had 24. Nobody on Phoenix had anything more than 12 points, and that was Cameron Johnson off the bench. Paul? He only had 10 points. Devin Booker had 11, and Deandre Ayton had 5. How are you supposed to win with that?
What makes this all the more shocking is that up until Sunday, whoever had the home-court advantage dominated and won the game. Game 7 was essentially the same feature presentation but with a slightly modified script, i.e., the visitors doing the domination. Good for Jason Kidd, but bad for Monty Williams.
To pile on, most of the Suns’ roster, including Paul, was pretty much the same group of cats that found themselves on the wrong side of the NBA Finals last season against Milwaukee. So what changed? What happened? The answer is simply a bad performance at the wrong time.
Surprisingly, these Suns looked overwhelmed by the pressure of a Game 7. Shots turned into bricks. Passes were being intercepted or incomplete. Where was that group that won 64 games during the regular season? Did they leave the floor after Game 5 thinking it would be easy? Did they think that going up 2-0 in a series is the equation for sudden victory?
Nope. They just lost. As if things couldn’t get any worse, it’s the second straight year the Suns have lost a playoff series after having a 2-0 lead. They were up 2-0 against the Bucks last year in the Finals before Giannis took over and won the next four.
The crowd at the Footprint Center provided visual evidence for the jury. By halftime, those folks probably just wanted to leave. Those who stayed perhaps wanted to see Donic and Dinwiddie dominate the rest of the game and put the folks out of their misery.
It should be noted that they are just the eighth pair of teammates to score 30 points in a Game 7, and the first since Shaq and Kobe in 2002. That’s no coincidence, and it’s likely what it will take to beat Golden State and make a finals berth for the first time since their 2011 championship season.
As for Paul and the Phoenix Suns, they too can enjoy the NBA Finals, but on their couches or wherever their vacation destinations are. Case closed. Phoenix is dismissed. Dallas, you are scheduled to appear in San Francisco at the Chase Center for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals at 9:00 p.m. EST this Wednesday.