Finally, it's Chris Paul's time to play for an NBA championship
After the Suns escaped Game 4 of the Western Conference finals with a win and 3-1 series lead over the Clippers, ESPN’s Rachel Nichols caught up with Chris Paul for a postgame interview on the Staples Center floor. When Nichols mentioned that 3-1 advantage, Paul immediately cut her off.
“Yeah, I don’t want to talk about 3-1,” Paul said. “Got a lot of bad experiences with that.”
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Paul was referencing the 2015 NBA playoffs when his Clippers blew a 3-1 lead against the Rockets, but he likely had more than one series on his mind. The 11-time All-Star has suffered deflating defeats and terribly timed injuries with multiple teams, never reaching the NBA Finals through the first 15 years of his career.
So, in Year 16, when Paul saw an opportunity to snag that elusive Finals berth, he wasn’t going to let it slip out of his hands. In Wednesday night’s Game 6 against the Clippers, Paul led the Suns to a 130-103 victory with 41 points (16-of-24 shooting), eight assists, four rebounds and three steals.
The man known as “The Point God” orchestrated the Phoenix offense to perfection in the second half, scoring 31 points and hitting all five of his 3-point attempts. Perhaps his biggest shot came with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Clippers had cut the Suns’ lead to seven after trailing by 17, so Monty Williams called for a timeout and subbed Paul back into the game. Paul proceeded to hit a 3-pointer on the next possession and score 14 of Phoenix’s next 16 points to build the lead back up to 20 early in the fourth quarter.
