Getty Suns star Chris Paul
The Phoenix Suns defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and Chris Paul helped the group in a number of ways.
Not only did CP3 put up 19 points and nine assists, but he also lit into his teammates on the bench after the Suns turned the ball over on three straight possessions and gave up seven straight points to start the third quarter.
“I was pissed,” Paul said after Game 4. “We all was. We was on the bench sort of going at each other, but it’s healthy. Just try to get us going, try to get us going and I tried to get myself going defensively.”
Paul scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter. The future Hall of Famer shot 8-of-17 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc in 38 minutes. The Suns are one win away from advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals.
Chris Paul: ‘I’ve Never Played With This Much Talent’
Paul said after Game 4 that he’s never played with this much talent in his career. Along with Paul, the Suns have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.
“I’ve never played with this much talent,” Paul said. “Where people are doubling off of me. I’ve never seen so many open shots. It’s something that I’m getting used to. Trying to figure out when to pick your spots, when to be aggressive. We’re figuring this thing out on the fly. I’m just happy that a few of them fell tonight.”
Paul is averaging 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 8.5 assists in the Clippers series while shooting 40.4% overall and 29.4% from 3. The Suns will need their floor general to play as he did in Game 4 moving forward if they want to win the championship.
Chris Paul Talks About the Heavy Minutes
Durant, Booker and Paul are playing a lot of minutes for the Suns. Paul, who is 37, talked about that dynamic after Game 4.
“You gotta actually watch the game,” Paul said. “There may be a four-minute, five-minute stretch where we just out there sort of occupying while Book going to work. It’s not just everybody, ‘Oh, how many minutes did they play?’ It’s how the minutes and I think that’s where we communicate and we talk and we be like, ‘Yo, how you feel? How you feel?’ We pros. So we just try to figure it out.”
Added Suns head coach Monty Williams: “I think it’s something we are concerned about as it piles up. Looking at the way the schedule is set up, playing every other day is not conducive to it. Part of why I did it today is we have a couple days to recover, but when you’re playing every other day in the playoffs, I’m like, ‘There goes load management.’ When I talk to our people and they talk about how our guys are running around, it’s not like the regular season. We’re not playing at that pace. So the load can be a bit different with the minutes the guys have played.”