The star: Chris Paul tears up his former team in Game 6.
LOS ANGELES >> Love him, hate him, or really hate him — Chris Paul in between the lines is always himself.
Ruthless. Disciplined. Occasionally hurling his body in unnatural directions.
There might be no better segment that summed up the totality of the Phoenix Suns guard as the final 14 minutes of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday: Paul scored a driving layup over Clippers center DeMarcus Cousins, stopped to crow in his ear, then as Cousins shoved him, shot to the ground as if he had been struck by a shovel.
The Staples Center crowd showered him with boos during the ensuing technical free throw, chanting “Chris Paul sucks!” to the very star they once praised as perhaps a franchise savior. But they couldn’t change what the 36-year-old was doing in the bigger picture — absolutely snuffing the dreams of the Clippers.
Whatever ire his antics drew, Paul was a coldblooded finisher given the chance to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in his 16th season, culminating in a 130-103 win. From the moment the Clippers were putting together a run, getting within seven points with a lively third-quarter rally, Paul crushed them with an authority belying his 6-foot stature, scoring 41 points (31 in the second half) with eight assists and no turnovers.
It’s not what many might have predicted as recently as the 2019-20 season, when Paul was traded from Houston to Oklahoma City, where many assumed he would be put out to pasture. But Paul said he’s written song lyrics on the soles of his shoes since those days when most assumed his best basketball was behind him.
“Can’t give up now,” he said, smiling and sweaty under an NBA Finals ballcap.
From the 1:43 mark of the third quarter when the Clippers put together a 10-0 run, Paul scored 27 points, making 10 of his 12 attempts from the field. But stats don’t quite paint the inevitability one of the NBA’s best operators carried in the performance.
Paul’s spots are unerringly familiar: the elbows, from the baseline just beyond the paint. While he can still shake defenders with his dribble, in the end, he’s always snaking to those same places where he has drilled jumper after jumper to earn the label “Point God.”
Maybe it was appropriate that Paul, who knows the pain of a long wait, helped end the Finals drought for Phoenix, which last went to the NBA’s big dance in 1993 with Charles Barkley. Paul himself fell one win short in 2018 with the Rockets. He might well have punched his ticket then if he hadn’t been injured during the deciding Games 6 and 7 against the eventual champion Golden State Warriors.
Paul’s 41 points in Game 6 on Wednesday matched a career postseason high, helping make up for the two games he missed at the start of the series due to COVID-19 protocols.
It was undoubtedly bittersweet for Clippers fans who held on out of respect for Paul, who spoke with reverence about the “six long years” he gave to that franchise.
“It’s a team I give the utmost respect for,” he said. “I’ll always be a Clipper. I love these fans.”
Then he pointed a thumb to the gleeful Suns team behind him, who got louder as he repeated himself: “But this group right here? This group right here? This group right here?”