Basket Ball / Sports

Chris Paul makes NBA playoff history in Phoenix Suns’ closeout win over the New Orleans Pelicans

Chris Paul shot a perfect 14-of-14 from the field to help the Phoenix Suns close out their opening round playoff series with a 115-109 Game 6 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Living up to his ‘Point God’ moniker, it marked the first time in playoff history that a player made 13 or more shots without a single miss.
Paul also made all four of his free throws to finish with 33 points, while also racking up eight assists and five rebounds.
However, the 12-time All-Star was lucky not to receive a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter for a brutal elbow to the chin of New Orleans guard Jose Alvarado. The incident was missed by the referees and, despite Alvarado’s protestations, the Pelicans were unable to call for a review after having already used their coach’s challenge.
Paul spent the first six years of his illustrious career in New Orleans after being drafted fourth by the franchise — then the Hornets — in 2005 and played his fifth season with current Pelicans head coach Willie Green.

“I’m emotional every game here [in New Orleans],” he told NBA on TNT. “Willie being my brother, somebody I talk to about everything, us not talking this whole series, seeing his son sitting on the baseline.

“It’s a good win for us, there’s a reason why he’s the coach here. There ain’t been this much energy here in a long time and I’m just glad we got the win. I always say this city raised me, man. It’s tough, this is emotional for me.
“I root for this team when I’m not playing against them, so to beat them was nice to get through the first round.”
On his return from a hamstring injury suffered in Game 2 of the series, Suns shooting guard Devin Booker put up 13 points, five rebounds and three assists, while center Deandre Ayton had a bright night with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
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Basket Ball / Sports

Bridges shines, Suns grab 3-2 series lead

With the series tied at 2-2, the Phoenix Suns welcome the New Orleans Pelicans to their homecourt for deciding Game 5. Both teams need this win to assert their will on the series. The Suns are shorthanded with Booker still not available. The Pelicans want to take advantage of that fact and gain the momentum in the Playoffs.

The Phoenix Suns went with their starting lineup of Chris Paul, Cameron Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and Deandre Ayton. The New Orleans Pelicans started with CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, Brandon Ingram, Jaxson Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas.

Game Summary

With the opening tip, both teams locked horns to take the lead early on the game. The crowd was enticed with such intense battles between the two teams. Early on in the game, the duo of Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton went to work. Ayton went to the paint and attacked the rim.

The Pelicans offense got a bit cold after a few minutes and they struggled immensely. The Suns defense was tight enough to frazzle the Pelicans and they turned the ball over multiple times.

In the 2nd quarter, a display between the two guards of both teams took place as they went head to head. McCollum and Paul were the ones who went on the offensive this time and distributing the ball to their teammates. Yet the Suns early lead was more than enough to take the 1st half with a score of 59-46.

In the 2nd half, the Pelicans went entirely on the offensive led by Ingram and Valanciunas. They were getting baskets to fall so that they could cut the lead. But the Suns were not as fazed. Mikal Bridges appeared and he went on the offensive. Bridges has shown scoring spurts and this was one of those moments.

The Suns held their 10 point lead entering into the 4th quarter. During a play, Brandon Ingram had possession of the ball and was hit on his elbow by Mikal Bridges which forced him to be on the bench for …

Basket Ball / Sports

Pelicans tie Booker-less Suns with 118-103 win in Game 4

Brandon Ingram scored 16 of his 30 points in the third quarter and the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Phoenix Suns — playing without injured star Devin Booker — 118-103 in Game 4 on Sunday night to tie the first-round series.

Jonas Valanciunas reasserted himself in the middle with 26 points and 15 rebounds to help the Pelicans pull even heading back to Phoenix for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

Booker strained his right straight after scoring 31 first-half points in the top-seeded Suns’ Game 2 loss. Deandre Ayton led the Suns with 23 points and eight rebounds, and fellow center JaVale McGee had 14 points.

Chris Paul, who had 19-point fourth quarters in the Suns’ two playoff wins, was held to four points in 35 minutes. He had 11 assists, but committed three turnovers.

The Pelicans led 89-85 with 8:05 left and used a 12-0 run to ice it. Valanciunas, limited to six points in a Game 3 loss, scored 10 points in a 3:34 span of the fourth quarter to help the Pelicans pull away. He punctuated his scoring spree with a 3-pointer from the left wing.

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Basket Ball / Sports

Pelicans stun Suns, 125-114, as Devin Booker gets injured

The New Orleans Pelicans’ shocking run to the 2022 NBA Playoffs took another turn Tuesday evening against the NBA-best Phoenix Suns.

Down 1-0 in the first-round playoff series after a blowout Game 1 loss, New Orleans put up a shocking performance. With a Devin Booker third quarter hamstring injury acting as a backdrop, New Orleans came out on top by the score of 125-114 in Phoenix.

It’s hard to describe exactly what happened inside Footprint Center in Arizona Tuesday evening. Losers of 46 regular-season games, New Orleans went into Phoenix and defeated the 64-win Suns by 11 points.

Former Los Angeles Lakers lottery pick Brandon Ingram put up a career-defining performance — scoring 37 points on 13-of-21 shooting. A top-10 NBA Rookie of the Year candidate, Herbert Jones added 14 points. Meanwhile, trade deadline acquisition C.J. McCollum continued his stellar performance after being obtained from Portland. The guard scored 23 points on 6-of-10 shooting from distance.

Having scored 31 points in the first half, one of the NBA’s best players in Devin Booker exited the game with hamstring tightness. At that point, it was a close affair. With Booker sidelined, Phoenix yielded 35 fourth-quarter points. As double-digit underdogs heading into the game, the New Orleans Pelicans absolutely shocked the world. They won 28 fewer games than the Suns during the regular season. They have now just taken home-court advantage from a team that many expected to be odds-on favorites to win the title.…

Basket Ball / Sports

CJ McCollum leads Pelicans past Spurs in play-in game

CJ McCollum got New Orleans going early and Brandon Ingram took over late to send the Pelicans to Los Angeles for a chance at the final playoff spot.

McCollum scored 27 of his 32 points in the first half to carry the young Pelicans to a 113-103 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. New Orleans will face the LA Clippers on Friday night for the eighth playoff seed.

“He was great,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said of McCollum. “He set the tone early. He understood the moment, and it sort of calmed the rest of the guys down. We just got the ball to him and he made play after play, score after score, and then the rest of the guys that just started to feed off CJ.”

Playing in his 57th playoff game, McCollum displayed a calming presence to his younger teammates. Rookies Herb Jones, José Alvarado and Trey Murphy played large chunks of the fourth quarter.

“I was just trying to be locked in and aggressive early,” McCollum said. “The playoffs is a lot of antics, a lot of momentum plays, a lot of back and forth. You’ve got to be stable and mentally locked in to withstand a certain level of (chaos). … There’s going to be a lot of winning in our future.”

McCollum wasn’t alone. Ingram shook foul trouble to add 27 points and center Jonas Valanciunas added 22 points and 14 rebounds as the Pelicans’ stars delivered under pressure of New Orleans’ first postseason game since 2018.

“The three best players for New Orleans all played great, and if that happens, you’re going to lose,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of his team’s inability to contain McCollum, Ingram and Valanciunas. “We stayed in it and got back in it, but then we made the same mistakes as we did in the first three quarters – non physical defense.”

“We’re just playing for each other,” Valanciunas said of combining for 81 points with McCollum and Ingram. “When things struggle, we need somebody …