Paul, Suns looking for perfection in the playoffs
Chris Paul is still looking for his perfect ending.
A perfect entry to Round 2 will have to suffice for now.
Paul and the Phoenix Suns — the team with the best record in the NBA this season — have moved on to the Western Conference semifinals, where a matchup with fourthseeded Dallas awaits. It'll start in Phoenix on Monday night.
And Paul is coming off the perfect game: 14 for 14 from the field, 4 for 4 from the foul line, 33 points in the 115-109 Game 6 firstround series-clincher for Phoenix at New Orleans on Thursday night. It was the most field goals without a miss in NBA playoff history and matched the fourth-most in any NBA game. The three better showings all belong to Wilt Chamberlain — who had games of 15, 16 and 18 makes without a single miss.
“Nobody's seen this, 14 for 14,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “This is the first time for all of us.”
Paul and the Suns got to the NBA Finals last season, winning the first two games against the Milwaukee Bucks before dropping the next four and watching Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammates celebrating a title.
All Phoenix did this season for an encore was win 64 games, earn home-court for the entirety of the NBA playoffs and now moves into Round 2. The Suns ousted eighth-seeded New Orleans in six games to advance, saw Paul make history and got Booker back from a hamstring strain for the clincher.
“All playoff series are hard,” Suns coach Monty Williams said when the series ended, lauding New Orleans' effort throughout. “Even if you sweep a team, that last game is going to be a battle. So yeah, this certainly helped us. This is not an eighth seed. No way.”
The fight, Williams hopes, steels the Suns for what's coming. Dallas eliminated Utah later Thursday night, giving Luka Doncic his first series win — and the Mavericks' first trip to the second round since 2011, when they won the NBA title.
“I'm ready,” Doncic said in an on-court interview in Salt Lake City after the Mavericks advanced. “It's going to be a fun series.” 76ERS EMBIID OUT FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE >> Joel Embiid has a right orbital fracture and a mild concussion and the Philadelphia 76ers said Friday night that the MVP finalist is out for the foreseeable future.
Embiid was injured late in Philadelphia's victory at Toronto on Thursday night, when the 76ers were closing out the Raptors and finishing off a six-game win in an Eastern Conference firstround series.
That win sent fourthseeded Philadelphia into the East semifinals against topseeded Miami, a matchup that begins Monday night.
But Embiid's status is now very much in doubt. A similar fracture, to his left orbital bone, kept him out for about three weeks — spanning 10 games, including two playoff games against the Heat.
He was already playing through a right thumb injury in these playoffs, but led the 76ers to the Round 1 win regardless.