Chris Paul throws a basket during the match. /
Basketball | NBA
The veteran point guard, Chris Paul, was the protagonist of the meeting with 41 points
With Chris Paul showing 41 points against his former team, the Phoenix Suns defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 130-103 on Wednesday night and sealed their first qualification to the NBA Finals since 1993.
After a 16-year career, Chris Paul will compete for the ring for the first time after a recital of 41 points, 7 triples and 8 assists against his former fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. «It has been 16 years of surgeries, hard work, defeats, bad defeats. We’re going to enjoy tonight, ”said 36-year-old Paul with relief.
«I am very happy for all the people around me. For doing it here, against a team for which I have the utmost respect. I will always be a Clipper. I love these fans, “said the point guard, who was booed by Los Angeles fans.
The Suns liquidated this final of the Western Conference by a score of 4-2 and now await a rival for the winner of the Eastern final, in which the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks are tied 2-2.
It will be the third Finals in the history of the Suns, who previously lost in 1976 to the Boston Celtics and in 1993, with a team led by Charles Barkley, to the legendary Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan.
The arrival this year of Paul in Phoenix, a team that did not qualify for the playoffs in a decade, turned the franchise upside down to second place in the Western regular season and a playoffs in which they eliminated the current ones in the first round champions, Los Angeles Lakers (4-2) by LeBron James, and then the Denver Nuggets (4-0).
The point guard was seconded by the team’s great scorer, Devin Booker, who finished with 22 points.
The Clippers, who were playing the first conference final in their history, could not force the seventh game of a series that they have had to play without their great star, Kawhi Leonard, who was injured in the knee in the previous tie against the Utah Jazz.
His other figure, Paul George, stayed at 21 points (6/15 in shooting from the field), without the strength to command another win as he did on Monday in Phoenix with 41 points. “There are no excuses, with injuries or not, there were games that were decided by one or two possessions. But the healthy team usually wins by now, ”George said. With Kawhi it would have been different.
Dreamy second half
In a dreamy second half, Chris Paul scored 31 points to sentence the team he played for six seasons (2011-2017), in which he never reached the conference semifinals.
Paul was, as of Wednesday, an illustrious member of the list of the best players in history who have never been in the Finals. The now Suns game director had missed the Finals several times in a career in which he also played for the Pelicans, Clippers, Rockets and Thunder.
His biggest frustration came in 2018 when his Rockets were 3-2 ahead of the fearsome Warriors in the Western Finals and, with Paul injured in Game 6 and Game 7, Houston was eliminated. In this tie, Paul missed the first two games due to a coronavirus quarantine.
Best mark
The point guard’s 41 points on Wednesday equaled his best mark in the playoffs and the second for a player at least 36 years old, only surpassed by Karl Malone’s (Jazz) 50 points in 2000.
Phoenix commanded the entire first half of the hand of his trio of figures that make up Booker, Paul and the young center DeAndre Ayton (16 points and 17 rebounds). For the Clippers Paul George gave offensive responsibilities to Marcus Morris (26 points) and point guard Reggie Jackson (13).
Devin Booker, who returned to play without the mask that protects him from his nose injury, placed a 13-point lead (80-67) in the middle of the third quarter with a fierce dunk that he celebrated with anger.
Various inaccuracies by the Clippers allowed counterattacks by the Suns that stretched their lead to 17 points (89-72), which seemed to put their win on track in advance.
But the Clippers, a team that has risen many times in these playoffs, weren’t going to give up so soon and got back into the game with a 10-0 run.
The Los Angeles streak, and the illusion of his fans, was cut short by Chris Paul, his former idol. The point guard put his team on his shoulders to score 14 of the next 16 points for his team and decide the fate of the tie.
Frustration among the Clippers caused aggressive Patrick Beverley to be sent off with five minutes remaining for giving Paul a hard push from behind.
Two minutes later, coach Ty Lue retired Paul George and the rest of the starters to receive a standing ovation from the Staples Center, which thanked them for a vibrant playoffs in which they rallied from 2-0 deficits on two occasions, against Mavericks and Jazz , a feat that no one had achieved.
«We had many injuries but this year was very special. We did things that no one had been able to do. I’m very proud of them even if we fell short, ”Lue acknowledged.
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