Chris Paul (groin) likely to miss three games in Suns-Nuggets series
Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul injured his groin in a Game 2 loss to the Denver Nuggets, and the team found out the severity of the injury on Tuesday, May 2nd. The Athletic’s Shams Charania announced that Paul will be re-evaluated in one week after having undergone an MRI on his groin earlier that day. We’ll be monitoring this injury closely, and our VSiN NBA Injury Report will be updated throughout all of this.
Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul is expected to be re-evaluated in one week after MRI on his groin injury today, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Suns are preparing to be without Paul through Games 3-5, sources said.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 2, 2023
Paul averaged 13.9 points, 8.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game for the Suns during the regular season. And while many are quick to point out that the Point God is no longer what he once was, he is still the floor general for this Phoenix team. Paul is the one that gets the Suns organized, and that’s something that is crucial at this time of year. Paul is also capable of turning back the clock and impacting games as a scorer in short spurts. In fact, Paul was right in the middle of one before he got hurt, as he helped Phoenix build an eight-point lead in the third quarter before asking to come out of the game. Instead, the Suns’ offense was a mess for the final quarter and a half, and the team now heads back to Phoenix down 2-0 in the series.
No matter what you might think of Paul’s game at this point in his career, the Suns invested heavily to bring in Kevin Durant and add him to a core of Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. The Suns sacrificed all of their depth in order to do so, trading Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets. With that said, losing any of the four key players is devastating for a Phoenix team that was favored to win the Western Conference before the postseason started. The Suns were already having trouble figuring out who to play from their thin group of bench players, and now they’ll have to come up with some combination of unlikely options to play Paul’s 35.7 minutes per night.
Phoenix opened as a -125 favorite to beat Denver in this series at DraftKings Sportsbook. However, Denver is now a -425 favorite to beat Phoenix and advance to the Western Conference Finals. And it’s hard not to think the top-seeded Nuggets will ultimately advance from here. But it should be noted that Denver was 19-22 on the road during the regular season. And the Suns are 3.5-point favorites to win Game 3. So, if Phoenix can find a way to hold serve and win two in a row, this could be a series again heading into Game 5.
