It was a tough night for Chris Paul in Sunday’s 118-103 Game 4 loss to the Pelicans.
After getting chippy with Herb Jones throughout the game, Paul went to offer the Pelicans rookie a hand when knocked down in the fourth quarter — and Jones wasn’t having it.
He sat on the ground and made a face while dismissing the Suns veteran’s hand, and waited for his Pelicans teammates to help him up.
Just a few minutes before that, Paul was called for a flagrant-1 foul on Jones, after the rookie stole a pass and went in for a layup. Paul swatted Jones’ arm on the way to the basket, and fans inside Smoothie King Center roared with boos.
The rookie and the vet were going at it all throughout the Suns’ Game 4 loss. Paul exchanged words with Pelicans star Brandon Ingram early in the third quarter and Miles Bridges came between the two.
Paul scored four points in 35 minutes of the first-round Western Conference series that is now tied 2-2. He added 11 assists and three rebounds in one of the worst playoff performances of his career.
Jones, meanwhile, recorded 13 points, three assists, and two rebounds as the Pelicans rookies ran circles around Paul and the Suns — who are without Devin Booker. Booker is expected to miss a few weeks with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain in Game 2.
Jose Alvarado, who signed with the Pelicans last August after going undrafted, celebrated his sneaky steal on Paul from behind late in the fourth when the Suns were down by 16 points.
“I got him. I got him,” Alvarado said after the game. “That’s one thing I wanted to do actually, I got him on my list.”
Game 5 is in Phoenix on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.