Chris Paul has been sidelined.
The Suns’ All-Star point guard has entered the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocol for an indefinite period of time, according to The Athletic. Whether he will be available for the team’s opening games of the Western Conference finals is not yet known, according to the report.
How long he will be away from the team is still not known. It is also not yet known if his placement in the protocol is due to being a close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus or if he received a positive test. If he was not vaccinated and experienced symptoms of the virus, he would face a minimum of 10 days away from the Suns. His return will probably be less than that. On Wednesday, after the report surfaced, ESPN’s Jalen Rose on “Get Up” said Paul was already vaccinated. Rose also estimated Paul would miss just one game.
Paul, 36, had played a crucial role in the Suns’ run through the 2021 playoffs, particularly in the Phoenix’s sweep of the Denver Nuggets in the second round. His 37 points in the Suns’ 125-118 win over the Nuggets on Sunday helped secure a clean entrance to the Western Conference finals. It’s the first time the Suns have been to the conference finals in 11 years. It will also be Paul’s second time playing in the Western Conference finals — he advanced that far in 2018 with the Houston Rockets.
Paul averaged 16.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 8.9 assists during the regular season. Over 10 games in this playoffs, he’s averaged 15.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists.
But the Suns are still waiting for an opponent. The Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers are tied 2-2 in a Western Conference semifinal best-of-7 series with Game 5 on Wednesday night. The earliest the Western Conference finals could start is Sunday, but that seems unlikely. If the Jazz and Clippers end up needing a Game 7 to decide a victor of their series, that would happen on Sunday, meaning the earliest the West Finals could start is Tuesday.
The Jazz-Clippers series buys Paul and the Suns some time ... for now.
