Suns’ Chris Paul on reaggravating right shoulder in Game 5 win: ‘It scared me’

The Phoenix Suns were cruising against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 as they were up by 33 at one point during the third quarter.

Phoenix Suns Arena was booming and the crowd was electrifying — and then Chris Paul appeared to reinjure his right shoulder on a box out against Lakers guard Wesley Matthews.

Paul grabbed his shoulder as he was coming up from the floor.

He would knock down two free throws before head coach Monty Williams subbed out Paul for good after playing 23 minutes.

“It scared me,” Paul said via Zoom. “I’ve been talking to Kyle Lowry a lot. He had a similar injury last year and few other guys. I don’t know just a very uncomfortable feeling, kind of helpless. When it happened, I didn’t know I was just looking up and sort of happened again.”

Paul added that when he came back onto the Suns’ bench, he approached Matthews and told him that it was “a clean play and it’s just unfortunate that my neck and arm snapped again.”

Williams said postgame that when Paul left to the Suns’ locker room so that he could get treatment done on his right shoulder.

“When (Paul) came back out, he said he still had strength,” Williams said. “And he seems to be OK, but we want to wait until tomorrow, after he wakes up and then our medical team can make an assessment.”

Suns guard Devin Booker told reporters that Paul was in good spirits as he came back to the Suns’ bench during the game and admired the strength his teammate showed as he knocked down his two free throws after reaggravating his right shoulder.

Paul finished the game with nine points, six assists and four rebounds as the Suns defeated the Lakers 115-85 to take a 3-2 series lead.

Phoenix will travel to Los Angeles for Game 6 and will look to close out the Lakers and advance to the second round of the playoffs.

Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. Catch all the action on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.