The top-seeded Phoenix Suns were braced for another fourth-quarter playoff fight on Wednesday, but Chris Paul turned it into an early knockout as they downed the Dallas Mavericks 129-109.
The 12-time All-Star scored 28 points, including 14 in another spectacular final period, to lead the Suns to a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semi-final series.
Paul, who turns 37 today, almost single-handedly turned a tight game into a comfortable victory — the Suns’ 11th win in a row against the Mavericks, counting regular-season games.
Photo: AFP
“You’ve just got to lean on the work,” Paul said. “It all goes back to the work. You can’t cheat the game. You’ve got to do the strength and conditioning, you’ve got to lift, you’ve got to get your rest, you got to get your shots up.”
“When you do that, you live with the results,” he said.
Suns guard Devin Booker said that he has run out of ways to describe Paul’s fourth-quarter heroics.
Photo: AP
“You guys tell me, you’re watching the same thing,” Booker said. “It impresses us every time we see it, but it doesn’t surprise us. It’s just the will to win.”
The Mavs led 60-58 at halftime, but the Suns quickly recaptured the lead after Booker hit back-to-back three-pointers early in the third.
The Suns took an 89-83 lead going into the final quarter and it looked like a tough fight was coming.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, that is about the time that Paul decided the game was his to control, hitting six shots in a row on everything from three-pointers to mid-range jumpers to layups.
The feisty Mavericks finally did not have an answer.
Booker hit two three-pointers midway through the fourth to give the Suns a 114-95 lead.
Booker led the Suns with 30 points on 11 of 19 shooting, including five of eight from three-point range.
The Suns shot 64.5 percent overall — a franchise record in the playoffs — and made 52 percent of their three-point attempts.
They shot 84 percent from the field (16 of 19) in the fourth quarter.
“We have good players,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “I’d love to sit here and tell you I’m moving the chess pieces around, but we have good players who can knock down shots.”
The Mavericks headed home in a 2-0 hole, desperately needing contributions from someone other than Luka Doncic, who scored 35 points on 13 of 22 shooting two nights after a 45-point performance in Game 1.
“He had a great game, but no one else showed,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ve got to get other guys shooting the ball better. We can’t win with just him out there scoring 30 a night. Not this time of the year and playing the best team in the league.”
Reggie Bullock added 16 points for the Mavs.
“The mood is fine,” Doncic said. “I think a lot of players, it’s the first time in this situation. They’ve got to win four, so it’s not over yet. We are going to go back home, our crowd is amazing.”
In Miami, Bam Adebayo scored 23 points, while Jimmy Butler had 22 points and 12 assists as the Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 for a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semi-final series.
“It’s always nice to win,” Butler said. “We just did what we’re supposed to do at home.”
Victor Oladipo scored 19 points on his 30th birthday and Tyler Herro added 18 for the Heat, the East’s No. 1 seed. Oladipo had 10 of those points in the fourth quarter.
Tyrese Maxey scored 34 points for Philadelphia, who got 21 from Tobias Harris and 20 from James Harden.
“We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and try to figure it out,” Maxey said.
A 10-0 run in the fourth turned an eight-point Miami lead into an 18-point edge, sealing the win and ensuring that the Heat would hold home court before the series shifts north.
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