The Phoenix Suns are now, officially, in trouble in their first round series against the Lakers after getting thumped in Game 3 in L.A., losing 109-95 to fall behind 2-1. It was a rough night for Phoenix offensively, as they struggled to score consistently, shooting 42.7 percent from the field and committing 17 turnovers against the stout Lakers defense.
On the other end, after a slow start for L.A. in the first half as well, the floodgates opened courtesy of LeBron James and Anthony Davis combining for 28 points in the third quarter that the Lakers won 33-23 to pull away from the Suns. Of those 33 points, seven were scored at the free throw line on nine attempts, most of which coming from Davis. On the night, the Lakers had 30 free throw attempts to the Suns 18, but in a game that was at one point a 21-point margin and finished as a 14-point game, the officiating was not high on the list of complaints most seemed to have.
However, Chris Paul couldn’t help but see the latest continuation of an unfortunate pattern for his teams, as it was the 11th consecutive loss for a Chris Paul-led squad in the playoffs when Scott Foster was on the call.
Chris Paul redirected the end of his final three press conference questions tonight to the same stat: "11 games in a row." Paul's teams have lost 11 straight playoff games refereed by Scott Foster. pic.twitter.com/BvbZTGe3eX
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 28, 2021
It’s certainly a dubious distinction and in the past it has come up in much tighter losses, but after a loss like this, it’s going to be hard to get too many people to buy into the argument that the officials played a major role. The disparity is notable, but so is the shot selection from the two teams. The Suns had 13 shots in the restricted area all game, whereas the Lakers had 25. That’s a massive difference and accounts for a good chunk of the free throw disparity — as did Dennis Schröder getting three free throws late after a Flagrant 2 from Devin Booker and Jae Crowder’s ejection for a technical.
Frustration with officials is expected for most teams after losses, but the Suns have bigger issues to figure out in this series. Deandre Ayton is feasting inside, but no one else could consistently get to the rim on the Suns and that had an adverse effect on their offensive efficiency and ability to get to the free throw line. Part of that is the highly unfortunate shoulder injury Chris Paul is still dealing with that is clearly limiting his abilities as a scorer, as he only attempted eight shots in 27 minutes as Phoenix opted for Cam Payne late as he was at least capable of getting up three-point shots (and hit a few).
Chris Paul’s issues with Scott Foster are well documented and there is some compelling evidence you can find in past games to support his claims, but this game doesn’t really fit into that as Phoenix was just flat-out outplayed in the second half.
