Chris Paul’s health will decide this series

In Game 1 of this series, Chris Paul hurt his right shoulder on a play where it looked like he collided with teammate Cam Johnson on a rebound attempt and from that point on through Game 1 and into Game 2, Chris Paul just has not looked right. 

He seems to be favoring that shoulder alot and it seems like he is unable to move it how he normally would, which is why his health and potential injury moving forward could really shape how the rest of this series will play out. 

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Paul only played 23 minutes in Game 2 and was pretty much a non-factor, which is why Cameron Payne saw 33 minutes off-the-bench for Phoenix. Payne was excellent in his reserve role backing up the injured Chris Paul, but moving forward, the Suns are going to need Paul on the court in critical moments of this NBA playoff series. 

If he is not healthy and cannot play at the standards that we know him to play at, then the Suns will be in big trouble in this series because somebody else will have to step up next to Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton. 

Cameron Payne was terrific in Game 2, but he is not going to be able to play this well the rest of the series. Not only does CP3 give the Suns a better offense given his abilities to pass and knock down shots from the mid-range, but he makes the Suns 10x better defensively given that he is one of the most underrated defenders in the NBA. 

Phoenix and Los Angeles play Thursday night and then Sunday night, so it should be interesting to see how Chris Paul’s shoulder injury progresses and what he will look like in this series moving forward.