This Sunday, Chris Paul and the Suns sank into hell at the American Airlines Center. We abuse the term ” hell ” ? Sure, but the use of ” dark “ is well justified. It has been two consecutive matches that the Point God has been surfing on a dynamic contrary to its status. It does not carry the Suns, and even tends to weigh them down. Debrief.
Of course we would have signed if at the dawn of this Game 4, a complete stranger had come to offer us a match of Cameron Payne at 5 points at 2/4 shooting, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. It’s obvious. But in what world does this stat line belong to Chris Paul? Not after all the work done in the regular season, not now. For the sake of transparency, it is worth mentioning its foul issue. This little piece of leader with twelve All-Star selections was actually sent back to the bottom of the bench by the refereeing trio, nine minutes from time. Is this, however, an attenuating circumstance to its poor performance? A little. His last three faults are – in our opinion – a summary of the refereeing level on this postseason 2022. The fourth is whistled to him for a contact on the rebound with Luka Doncic. It’s light, and so not in the Playoffs spirit. The fifth is an offensive foul, for an obstruction on Jalen Brunson, again not very obvious. The sixth ? We don’t even tell you so much it might get on your nerves. In these conditions, it is difficult to play hard. And what happens when you can’t play tough on the outside in Game 4 of a conference semifinal? We take the broth.
Chris Paul has fouled out of Game 4 with 9 minutes left in the 4th vs. the Mavs 🤯
Thoughts on this sixth foul?pic.twitter.com/3yY3Jm7c95
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 8, 2022
In the same way as a victory, a defeat is a team effort. The referees scuttled Chris Paul, that’s one thing, but the Point God did not move heaven and earth to reverse the trend. The pattern of its dynamics is so lunar. A first game with 19 points at 7/13 shooting, a second with 28 points and 8 assists, then the decadence. Last Friday, he lost seven balls in Game 3. Two days later, Chris Paul is expelled for the fourth time in his career in the Playoffs. To come back to his fourth fault, although it only exists in a world where the Tourtel Twist is the number 1 drink in bars, he makes the mistake of playing the offensive rebound. At 37, in such an important match, the first instinct must be to think and act according to his number of fouls. However, at this precise moment, he already had three. Like what, we never stop learning. The problem is that in 1400, during the Renaissance, life expectancy was around 32 years. If he had lived at that time, Chris Paul would have died ignorant.
We forget everything and start over. For Chris Paul, next Tuesday’s meeting is one of the most important of his old career. It’s up to the Suns to react, it’s up to him to show the way.
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