Had Chris Paul turned in a trademark CP3 game, he’d be one game closer to his first NBA championship.
But CP3 was more like CP1 in the Suns’ 109-103 loss to the Bucks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday. He scored 10 points and dished seven assists, but shot just 5-of-13 from the field and turned the ball over five times, including a blunder in the final minutes of the fourth quarter that gave the Bucks a two-possession advantage.
The series is now tied at two games apiece and headed back to Phoenix for Game 5. A Suns win would have put them in commanding 3-1 lead over the Bucks in position to close at home.
Paul, like many players on both the Bucks and Suns, has never been to an NBA Finals. In fact, Milwaukee’s Jae Crowder was the only player on either team with previous championship experience on last season’s Heat team.
Game 4 looked like a matchup between two nervous, anxious and excited teams, and the Suns jumped out to an early 18-9 first-quarter lead thanks to their three-headed monster of Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. Paul scored the third basket of the opening quarter and didn’t make another field goal until the third quarter.
Meanwhile Booker scored 42 points on 17-of-28 shooting and Khris Middleton turned in 40 on a mid-range clinic.
The Suns went back up by nine again in the third quarter, but Middleton’s cool shooting kept the game from reaching double digits. Ultimately, Middleton showed for his team on a 26-point night from Giannis Antetokounmpo.
No Suns player other than Booker scored more than 15.
Officials in Game 4 made a questionable no-call on Booker in the fourth quarter when he wrapped around Jrue Holiday in a chase-down block attempt. Booker, who had five fouls at the time, was not whistled for a foul, but Antetokounmpo followed Holiday’s miss and put it in.
Each team has done their job and protected home court, and as the saying goes, a playoff series doesn’t start until someone loses at home. The Suns have looked dominant on both ends of the floor at different junctures of this series, but they have struggled to contain Antetokounmpo, who returned from a second-round knee injury in Game 1 of this series.
The Suns, however, looked disjointed when Paul was out of sorts. He was caught on camera telling his teammates he was going to shoot his way out of his funk, but continued to miss shots and made a costly turnover down the stretch.
The Bucks are proving a win against them isn’t going to come easy, especially not on their own home floor, where they thoroughly handled the Suns in a 20-point win in Game 3.
Paul’s struggles from the floor were a cause for concern on the brightest stage of his career. It’s going to take a trademark game for him to win a trademark ring. If he doesn’t, this series may not be in Phoenix’s favor much longer.
