Chris Paul on injury in Lakers series: Don’t know why they guarded me

It was a very eventful run to the NBA Finals for the Phoenix Suns last season and many fans feared it wasn’t going to go that far in the moment when point guard Chris Paul injured his shoulder in Game 1 of the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Paul was in visible discomfort on the floor for a few minutes after sustaining the injury before later returning and not missing a game, listed on the injury report with a right shoulder contusion.

It was evident, though, that this was one heck of a contusion.

Paul’s ability to shoot, dribble and pass the ball with his right arm were all clearly affected. There was discussion from those watching on as to why the Lakers were even defending Paul off the ball given his obvious struggle with getting a shot up.

It was all rather baffling, so you can imagine Paul’s perspective on it. Paul to the media at the time was, of course, not acknowledging how compromised his shoulder was or flat out letting it be known publicly.

After the fact, however, he told his former teammate J.J. Redick on Redick’s The Old Man & the Three podcast that he indeed couldn’t shoot (Expletive language warning in link).

Beyond that, Paul wasn’t able to bounce the ball on the floor in his dribble the way he is accustomed to.

“No,” Paul said when asked by Redick if he could shoot. “That is a great question … I done had some crazy injuries. This was probably one of the craziest ones, because, dribbling. That’s what I do. [J.J.], I would dribble, and the ball wouldn’t come back up.

“It was the scariest thing ever. I would dribble and, ‘Whoa. Why am I losing the ball? Why am I losing the ball?’ There was a shot I hit and I literally grabbed it and I threw it from the right elbow and it went in. And I turned and looked at my brother (courtside) and (said), ‘I don’t know how the hell that went in.'”

The second shot in this video from Game 1 sounds like the one Paul is referencing.

One of these two shots from Game 1 after he came back is the one Paul is talking about. You can see how different the form on his shot is. pic.twitter.com/mv0l5wDKpZ

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) February 3, 2022

Paul went on to describe in Game 2 that he was “faking the funk” of trying to make it seem like his shoulder was fine.

But there were several moments in the series where Paul would catch the ball with space on the perimeter for a jumper that he would pass on. That, on top of errant passes and goofs with his handle, were letting everyone know he was unable to function like he normally does. And yet, the Lakers were still defending Paul during some points like it was still the same Paul.

Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said at the time they were still going to treat him like the Point God, which was rather unbelievable to hear given what we were seeing. Paul was in the same boat.

“I don’t even know why they was guarding me,” he said. “I could not shoot. … If you go back and look at it, you would see from game to game they wasn’t sure. Because they would go trap and then they was like, ‘Should I close out to him? Should I close out to him?’ I could not shoot at all. I couldn’t raise my arm.”

Paul then discussed the tidbit that had been shared from head coach Monty Williams, that Williams originally told Paul before Game 4 that he was going to sit Paul because Paul couldn’t be himself. Paul, naturally, called a neurologist and got an opinion that he couldn’t make the injury worse, so he went on to play.

In his true spirit, that was the night Paul had his best game of the series, 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting. It was the only game in the series he reached double digits in, a series the Suns won 4-2.

The full episode of Paul’s appearance on The Old Man & the Three can be heard on Friday.

Follow @KellanOlson