"Some, his own doing, some, just not smart plays when you're already not getting the benefit of the doubt" - Tim Legler highlights reasons for 12x NBA All-Star's subpar outing against Mavs
While many expected a blowout, the NBA Western Conference matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks is now in a best-of-three scenario.
The game on Sunday started out as a scrappy, physical affair. Two technical fouls were handed out early to each of the star players on Phoenix and Dallas, Devin Booker and Luka Dončić.
Chris Paul fouled out early in the fourth quarter and only managed five points, seven assists and five rebounds for the game. Of note here is the fact that Paul has usually had explosive fourth-quarters in the playoffs thus far.
Tim Legler, on ESPN's "Get Up," talked about Chris Paul's peculiar night, stating:
"You're looking at the combination of factors that led to Chris Paul not being included in that game. Some, his own doing, some, just not smart plays when you're already not getting the benefit of the doubt on calls earlier."
"There's also a couple he's just wrong place, wrong time and then I thought there was a couple other ones that I just absolutely disagreed with the call, anyway you slice it, when you're in that kind of trouble the entire game, there's no way you can get into rhythm on the other end of the floor.
"I just thought it was a very strange game for Chris Paul."
Paul is infamous for his on-court antics. He often flops, draws fouls in unorthodox manners and is not highly regarded among NBA referees.
Review: The Dallas Mavericks have a decent chance to make it to the NBA Western Conference finals but the Suns are still the better team
At the start of the playoffs, the narrative around the Mavericks was that if the Utah Jazz clean up their mistakes from the regular-season, Dallas would be going home. As of last night, the Mavericks have a very real chance of making it to the NBA Western Conference finals.
Took care of business 😤
@TIAA | #dALLasIN https://t.co/AC3O9EM4uL
Dallas convincingly took its second-straight win on Sunday, 111-101, after they put on a clinic from three-point range, shooting 51.2% in the first half. Despite Luka's 26/7/11 double-double, the star of the night was undoubtedly Dorian Finney-Smith.
12 of Finney-Smith's 13 field-goal attempts were threes, and he managed to sink eight of those, an astonishing 66.7% from the three-point line.
As the series moves back to Phoenix, a noteworthy fact is that the Phoenix Suns haven't lost more than two games in a row the entire season. The Mavericks will surely give them a run for their money in Game 5 on May 11.