Phoenix Suns: 3 keys to staying alive this postseason

Questions about whether or not Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams was right to pull Chris Paul from the second game of the team’s first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers were bound to come in droves. The game was close; Paul wanted to play; even though it was only the second game of the series, one the Suns already led, a case could be made that it was a must-win. But there’s a far more important question that lingers in the balance of all these notions, one that puts them all to waste: if a clearly hampered Paul were to further aggravate his injury, thus rendering him unplayable for the remainder of the series, would Williams regret letting him run?

The injury Paul suffered early in the second quarter of Game 1 was initially deemed a “shoulder contusion,” though even that doesn’t seem quite right. Perhaps it’s a stinger, or a bruise, or something far more significant — he did say he heard a crack upon colliding with teammate Cameron Johnson. He was evidently ailing when he returned in Game 1. In Game 2, Williams was all but forced to take his star point guard off the floor; maybe his choice had a weaker analytical leg to stand on, but the emotional one was undeniable.

“Just looking at him, holding his arm the way that he was holding it, I just couldn’t watch him run like that,” Williams said after pulling Paul in the fourth quarter. “He’s not able to make the passes he wants. He wasn’t even running the way that he ran and dribbled the ball [that] morning.”

There’s no perfect way for the Phoenix Suns to succeed with a hampered Chris Paul. If they want to defeat the Lakers, they’ll need the next best thing.

To start Thursday night’s Game 3, Paul took the floor, cup therapy marks visible on that injured shoulder, and made an immediate impact, no matter the pain. He took and drained a few of his trademark fadeaways from the free throw line extended, brought the ball up the floor with an offensive attack in mind, and even defended with the vigor fans and viewers alike are used to seeing.

The second half, though, saw a different CP3 take the floor; he played just over eight minutes, finishing the half scoreless, and was pulled again in favor of backup point guard Cameron Payne with 10 minutes to play and the Suns trailing by double digits. For the better part of all three games in this series, Phoenix has been without their floor general in one way or another, something they didn’t have to deal with during the regular season, and can’t afford to navigate in a stacked Western Conference playoff bracket. For crying out loud, their first-round opponent won the championship last season. This wasn’t exactly going to be a cakewalk in the first place.

To survive however many games this series has left in it, they’ll have to find ways to work around — and replace — Paul’s irreplaceable impact. Whatever approach they elect to take will be entirely imperfect. At this point, though, absolutely every game is a must-win. Therefore, every option has to be on the table.