Chris Paul's quest to capture that elusive NBA championship will unfortunately require him playing another season with the Phoenix Suns. With a coveted trip to the Western Conference Finals up for grabs, the veteran guard wilted under Game 7 pressure on Sunday, scoring a measly 10 points on only eight shots in the team's blowout loss to the underdog Dallas Mavericks at Footprint Center.
Paul's poor offensive performance matched the Suns' overall effort. Phoenix scored as many first-half points (27) as Dallas superstar Luka Doncic, and by the time Paul made his first bucket, the Suns were trailing by a whopping 38 points during the third quarter. Paul became the first player in NBA history to blow five 2-0 playoff leads, according to StatMuse, and he also set a career-low in plus-minus. The only question is, has Paul's window to capture a title officially closed? NBA on TNT reporter Jared Greenberg doesn't believe so.
"I'm not ready to go there, and I know a lot of people want to go there. I think the West is going to be significantly better next year," Greenberg explained to The Zach Gelb Show on Monday. "You look at how much better Golden State is going to be. The Clippers are going to be better when they have Kawhi and Paul George back. Dallas on the rise... I think Phoenix is going to make some obvious tweaks to this roster, and I don't think they're going anywhere yet.
"I think it's going to be a bloodbath in the Western Conference. The top seven or eight teams are all going to be really good... Just kind of feels like the Suns flamed out. Seemed like they peaked way too early -- just didn't have enough left in the tank. And as much as I want to blame the Suns, I'll give credit to the Mavs for the way Jason Kidd out-coached the Suns. And the way Doncic and the supporting cast outplayed the Suns."
Paul's effort wasn't uninspiring in the Suns' first two games against the Mavs, as he scored a combined 47 points on 18 of 29 shooting with 11 assists and 11 boards. But his downward spiral began May 6 -- on his 37th birthday -- and in the final five games of the series, he averaged only 9.4 points and 5.8 assists with 18 total turnovers. Paul is now 3-5 all-time in elimination games, and he's lost his last four Game 7's.
After the loss, Paul took a brunt of the blame upon himself, and told reporters that he has no intentions of retiring this offseason. Last summer, Paul signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with Phoenix, and he's set to earn $28.4 million during the 2022-23 campaign. Entering the West semifinals, the Suns had a league-high 54-percent chance to reach the NBA Finals and a 30-percent chance to win the title, according to FiveThirtyEight's projections.
The entire NBA conversation between Greenberg and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.