The Phoenix Suns looked shaky against the New Orleans Pelicans, but the reigning Western Conference Champions finally pulled away and won the series 4-2. This was a bit of a surprise considering the Suns were expected to sweep or win in 5 games. Chris Paul had a historic night to close out the win for Phoenix who await the winner of the Dallas Mavericks vs. Utah Jazz series.
In the meantime, the Suns had an extra message to send to the Pelicans fanbase. After notable irritant Jae Crowder was booed mercilessly in Game 4, the fanbase decided to double-down by printing out what they chanted at Jae on t-shirts and distributing them.
Considering the Pels lost, this stunt proved to be wholly ineffective. Crowder spun it on the fans that made the shirt as he wore it to his post-game press conference, and so did injured teammate Devin Booker.
https://twitter.com/GeraldBourguet/status/1519809610680619009
From the video, it looked like Booker and Crowder may have planned this ahead of time in case they did close the series out at the Pelicans’ home arena. The players are the most competitive bunch in that arena, so they were bound to hit back at the fans for disrespecting Crowder the way they did.
Booker returned from a hamstring injury suffered earlier in the series tonight, but had an average game and scored just 13 points. Crowder contributed 9 points on the night, as the headlines were stolen by Chris Paul’s perfect offensive game where he went 14/14 for all shot attempts on the night.
The Suns’ fans will be looking forward to the next round and a possible run to the championship while the Pelicans’ fans will not see their team in action again until October. But the NOLA put up a great fight in the playoffs, and the players certainly will have earned everyone’s respect.
