Chris Paul came up big in the clutch for the Phoenix Suns with a tough baseline jumper over Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. CP3's insurance bucket that put Phoenix up by four with 7.3 ticks remaining proved enough to lift the Suns to their fifth win of the young season. After the jumper, Suns rookie Ty-Shon Alexander accidentally stepped on Paul's shoe, causing it to come off while celebrating the big play from the veteran.
Asked about his thoughts on the mini-hiccup from the rookie, Paul just laughed off the incident.
Via Duane Rankin of azcentral:
"I told him it was all good. At least they didn't push it, right? Thankfully they called a timeout or we was going to be in trouble."
Chris Paul all smiles about rook Ty-Shon Alexander stepping on his shoe coming on court to celebrate shot to put #Suns up 4 with 7.3 seconds left pic.twitter.com/Hog7DCIgIA
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) January 2, 2021
Just the usual rookie mistake for the 22-year old. Nonetheless, the usually locked-in Chris Paul was certainly in a good mood. After all, his clutch hit helped ensure the win for the Suns.
Phoenix barely escaped by the skin of its teeth, especially after the team blew a lead as large as 16 points. The Nuggets stormed back in the second half and gave the Suns a scare up until the final buzzer.
After CP3 made the baseline jump shot over The Joker, Denver's Serbian star nailed a three on the other end to make things more interesting. Paul made two free throws to give Phoenix a 3-point lead. Jamal Murray's last-second attempt to send the game into overtime didn't drop and the Suns hung on for the tight win.
The Phoenix Big Three came up big in this 3-point victory that gave the Suns the solo spot for the best record in the NBA. Paul finished with 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting to go along with six assists. Devin Booker co-led the team in scoring with 22 points alongside Deandre Ayton, who also had 22 markers to go with 11 boards.