PHOENIX — There were 54 fouls called.
Eleven were offensive, with Phoenix picking up the first seven of them.
There were 30 3-pointers made. Dallas hit 17 of them.
Then there was Chris Paul.
With Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker and JaVale McGee all in foul trouble, the Suns turned to their floor general and once again, Paul delivered in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s 129-109 win to take a 2-0 series lead in the conference semifinals.
“It impresses us every time you see it, but it doesn’t surprise us,” Booker said. “It’s just the will to win. If he sees a matchup he likes, you can hear their bench yelling, ‘Send him left.’ You can try whatever you want to do, but he has a rebuttal move for you at every turn. Not only can he score, he can make a play for somebody else if you leave your man.”
Scoring 14 of his 28 points in the fourth, Paul, who turns 37 years old Thursday, had the sellout crowd of 17,071 rocking in the fourth to fuel Phoenix’s offensive eruption.
“It’s fun, I love it,” said Paul, who shot 6-of-7 from the field in the fourth.
The Suns outscored the Mavs 40-26 in the fourth as they led by as many as 26. This after finishing Game 1 poorly in winning by just seven after leading by 21.
“You have to not only be impressed, but proud of the way we continue to win games mentally,” Suns coach Monty Williams said.
The series now shifts to Dallas for Friday’s Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4.
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