Could Suns' collapse have been Chris Paul's last shot at title?

Mon, May 16, 2022
NBA News (AP)

In the midst of the Phoenix Suns' embarrassment, a basketball tragedy was playing out.

The window for Chris Paul to win a championship was narrowing at warp speed.

This was supposed to be his shot. The Suns had the best record in the league. They were the only team to win at least 60 games. In a season filled with so many question marks and uncertainty, they were incomparably consistent.

They clawed their way to the top of the standings despite owner Robert Sarver being accused of racism and misogyny, and they remained there amid a marathon of turbulence. Nothing could dislodge them from the pinnacle. Not injuries. Not perceived slights. Not anything.

Then came the biggest shocker of the year.

In Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks, the Suns had their worst performance of the season in a stunning 123-90 loss. In their most important game, they didn't just crumble, they imploded on an epic scale.

The Suns never led and trailed by as many as 46 points. Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton were a combined 1-for-15 from the field at halftime as the Suns fell into a 30-point hole, 57-27. The teams' Big Three went on to finish with a combined 26 points, single-handedly being outscored by Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic (35 points) and reserve Spencer Dinwiddie (30 points).

At halftime, TNT analyst Charles Barkley succinctly expressed the profound surprise of millions of basketball fans around the nation: "In my wildest dreams, I never thought this would happen."

It was bad. It was entirely unexpected. It was absurd.

But more than anything, it was sad for Paul.

In Paul's Hall of Fame career, the one thing that has always eluded him is a championship. Because of that, his greatness has always been questioned. There has always been an asterisk next to his name.

He came close to shattering that ceiling last season after he led the Suns to a 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks in his first appearance in the NBA Finals. But the Suns fell apart in six games, letting that elusive opportunity slip through their fingers like grains of sand.

Paul seemed poised to remedy that this season.

He averaged 14.7 points, 10.8 assists and only 2.4 turnovers a game. Those aren't monster numbers. But there's a strong argument to be made that no one affected winning more than Paul and no team won more games than the Suns.

But in the playoffs, everything crumbled once again for him.

The Suns went on to blow another 2-0 series lead, this time against the Mavericks. It has seemingly become an inescapable theme for Paul, who is the only player in NBA history to blow five 2-0 leads in best-of-seven series, according to StatMuse.

The question has now become: Is it too late for Paul to win a title? Has he missed his chance?

When he was asked an iteration of that question Sunday evening, he waved it off.

"They said that last year," said Paul, who had 10 points and 4 assists in 31 minutes on Sunday. "They probably said it back in '08. You play long enough and you don't win, every time you lose, they're going to say it was your best chance. But I think for me, [for] us, it's we'll be right back next year. I'll tell you that much. I'm not retiring tomorrow, thank God."

His optimism rang a bit hollow, though. It's one thing to say that when you're 27. But Paul is 37.

We all know how incredibly hard it is to even be in a position to compete for a championship. To even make the postseason, teams need an incredibly enigmatic combination of skill, luck and compatibility.

For Paul, who is in his 17th season, the clock is ticking - especially in a Western Conference with the superstar-laden Golden State Warriors and up-and-comers such as the Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans. (Not to mention the injury-riddled Clippers and LeBron James' Lakers.)

It's hard not to wonder if Paul's opportunity has passed, if he will go down as one of the greatest players of all time to never win a title.

Paul, of course, will blame himself for this lost opportunity. And he's not entirely wrong. He had a bit of a disappearing act in the last couple of weeks.

In the first five games of the playoffs against the Pelicans, he averaged a magnificent 12 assists and only 1.2 turnovers. In that series - and the team's first game against the Mavericks - he scored at least 28 points four times.

But in the team's last four games of the semifinals, Paul never scored more than 12 points. He twice had only four assists. In one game, he had seven turnovers. And on Sunday, the Suns were down by 40 points by the time he scored his first field goal in the third quarter.

When asked if there was something going on with him in this series, he bristled.

"No. I think we just came out and just didn't have enough," Paul said. "I think [Suns coach] Monty [Williams] said that's on him, but I think that's on me, as the point guard, the leader of the team. To come out and make sure you're getting the right shots and all that. But that is what it is."

It's on everyone else, too. No one had it Sunday. Booker, the team's leading scorer, was lifeless, finishing with 11 points on 3-for-14 shooting. Ayton played only 17 minutes, a decision Williams later called "internal." No one on the team scored more than 12 points.

It's just all too bad.

This season, Williams was the Coach of the Year. Booker was fourth in MVP voting. Mikal Bridges was the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year. And Cameron Johnson came in third for Sixth Man of the Year.

Paul had the perfect cast around him. So much went right for this team. But on Sunday, so much went so wrong.

"We basically played our worst game of the season tonight," Williams said. "That group has a lot of character and integrity, and I know how bad they wanted it. We just could not execute tonight, couldn't make a shot early, and that messed with us a little bit. And Dallas played their tails off from start to finish."

Added Johnson: "I can't tell you guys enough how much I wish I could rewind the clock a couple of hours."

The Suns will need time to process this loss. For a team that was expected to reach the NBA Finals at the start of the postseason, this loss was just too crazy for the players to wrap their heads around right after the buzzer.

Everyone was dejected. Everyone had a hard time pinpointing why things went so wrong, so quickly.

But the Suns' loss paled in comparison to the loss Paul suffered.

For him, this wasn't just one game. This may have been his last window to win a title. We may have just seen the curtains close on his championship hopes.

Sure, there's always next season.

But he'll be turning 38 then. The Western Conference will look different. So much can happen. Who knows if the Suns will get this shot again before he retires.

For Paul, it's back to the drawing board.

In fact, moments after the game ended, he said his 12-year-old son reached out to him with a text of encouragement, writing, "Let's get in the gym."

Paul will undoubtedly do that. He'll spend the summer trying to improve. He'll pour himself into figuring out a way to accomplish the one thing he hasn't.

But whether he'll ultimately get this chance again remains clouded with uncertainty.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for AP Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.