MY ACCOUNT
Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul was all smiles after his side’s crucial 114-111 road win against the New Orleans Pelicans, in a city that holds a special place in the heart of the ‘Point God’.
With Devin Booker out for the game with a hamstring injury, Chris Paul assumed a greater offensive load on Friday and took it in stride.
He posted a gaudy playoff stat line of 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting, with 14 assists, while Deandre Ayton was superb, riding a hot start to a 28-point (13-of-20 shooting), 17-rebound showing.
Paul, who was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets back in 2005, dismissed a question in the post-game press conference about whether he heard fans in the arena chanting their displeasure for their former favourite son, and wrapped his arms around the city he once called home.
“These are my people, man. I grew up here,” he said. “Six of the best years of my life I played for New Orleans.
“I know how I am with this city, that will never change. I have my parents here, my family here.
“There’s nothing like it, it will always be so much love between me and the city here.”
Touching on the game, Paul was full of praise for both Suns centers who played key roles in Game 3.
“[Ayton’s start] was huge, it was big-time,” he said. “You can’t replace everything that Devin [Booker] does for us, so it’s going to be different spurts, where guys get going.
“[Ayton] kept us in this game in order to bring it home down the stretch… he kept telling me he was going to get me loose, and to stop passing and just shoot the ball.
“JaVale [McGee] was amazing. We talked about it – this was the third game where Larry Nance came in and they started to switch everything – so we wanted to try and punish them on the inside.
“JaVale’s energy is contagious – him rebounding and getting those put-backs kept us in the game, too.”
The Suns were a top-10 team in three-point percentage during the regular season, but shot just four-of-26 from downtown on Friday.
Paul went into detail about why he feels that stat bodes well for his side going forward in this series, and why he thinks they are built to handle adversity and win tough games.
“We got a lot of good looks,” he said. “I was one-for-six, and I didn’t realise we were four-of-26 [from three-point range] – but the thing about it is we got great looks.
“All season long we’ve been a really good shooting team, so to win this game without shooting well, that’s a plus for us, because if we can get the same shots next game, hopefully we can knock them down.
“We’ve got a good group who have been together – we’re sort of battle-tested when it comes to things. We went on an incredible run last year, and we’re still building.
“I don’t know the amount of playoff games our team has under our belts, so everything is still new to a certain extent, but guys know what to expect, and we know what we want to get to [offensively] down the stretch.”
