We have got ourselves a series with Mavericks-Suns at 2-2, but has this come at the cost of Chris Paul getting wrongful fouls in the game? Certainly, Jason Kidd and his Mavericks wouldn’t think so.
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The 2022 Playoffs have not disappointed one bit. The quality of basketball has been top-notch, and it had to go just up with no upsets in the First Round. So it did. The quality of the referring meanwhile has been questionable, and it is disappointing.
Although the Grizzlies–Warriors series hasn’t had an effect on the end result of the first 3 games, it had plenty of controversial and big calls that could have altered the results easily. But the Phoenix Suns weren’t as lucky as the two teams.
They might have lost the Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals due to questionable referring. Even though it wasn’t just them who were at the end of all the wrongful calls, they ended up being the team who got the most affected.
Chris Paul was at the receiving end of some questionable foul calls
Chris Paul might have been at the end of some questionable calls earlier in the game but with just under 9 minutes remaining in the game, he was rightfully called for his 6th foul of the game and was sent out as soon as he came off the bench.
Here is Arizona Sports’ angle of Chris Paul’s fifth and sixth fouls. @JonBloom @SunsTK share their thoughts. #RallyTheValley https://t.co/K8RIKLhYDb pic.twitter.com/RQ3W78BQVw
— 98.7 Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 8, 2022
He was sitting out almost throughout the 3rd quarter for getting in foul trouble, getting his 5th within 3-minutes into the quarter. And so, Devin Booker, who tried taking Suns through, believed referring was bad but kept himself from taking the bait of talking about it on the post-game pressers.
— Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) May 8, 2022
Jason Kidd calls CP3 one of the best point guards but with a pun intended behind his statement
Both teams got plenty of debatable foul calls in the game, but as it turned out, the Mavericks benefited from it the most. Doncic who was struggling from the 3-point line consistently kept getting calls to go to the free-throw line and converted 7 out of 8 FTs while his teammates were 8 of 11.
And Jason Kid had this to say on ending up on the little better side of the calls this game.
That’s pretty cool this time of year.”
Jason Kidd credits Chris Paul for teaching Luka Doncic and the Mavs how to draw fouls in crucial situations 😅 pic.twitter.com/GCsduzSOlD
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 8, 2022
Other than Luka (1/10) most of the Mavericks shot thunderbolts from the perimeter with Dorian Finny Smith’s 8/12 and Davis Bertans’ 4/5 being the highlight.
We’d never know how the game would have ended with CP3 not being in foul trouble throughout the second half. His fouling out at a time when his team was 7-down with around 9 minutes to go in the game proved crucial for both the teams.