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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPHOENIX (AP) Chris Paul waited 16 years to get to the NBA Finals, bringing with him a team starving for its first championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The setting was entirely new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The performance was same ol’ Chris Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00bbJust knew he’s ready,\u00bb Phoenix forward Mikal Bridges said. \u00bbHe’s prepared his whole life for this moment and it shows out there on the court.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul had 32 points and nine assists in an NBA Finals debut that was well worth the wait, Devin Booker scored 27 points and the Suns beat the returning Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks 118-105 on Tuesday night in Game 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul scored 16 points during a sensational third quarter that had Phoenix fans who waited 28 years to see the NBA Finals again screaming in delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00bbEvery time he shoots it we think it’s going in,\u00bb Booker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It almost did in the third quarter, when Paul was 6 for 7 and made all three 3-pointers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally playing for the title in his 16th season, the star point guard has the Suns in the NBA Finals for only the third time, and it sure looked as if they could make this ending different than the other two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00bbWe’ve been building all season long for these moments,\u00bb Paul said. \u00bbWe’re going to keep playing. This is just one game. We’ve got to stay locked in.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deandre Ayton added 22 points and 19 rebounds to continue his breakout stretch of play in his first postseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antetokounmpo had 20 points and 17 rebounds after missing two games with a hyperextended left knee. Khris Middleton scored 29 points, but the Bucks will have to play from behind again after dropping Game 1 for the third straight series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00bbWe know it’s not going to be easy. We know it’s going to be tough,\u00bb Middleton said. \u00bbThere’s times where we’re going to be down in this series. But this series isn’t over. We’re down. We’ve still got to keep competing and just playing.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The series opener was the first NBA Finals game in Phoenix since Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls won their third straight championship here in Game 6 in 1993. The Suns, who came into the NBA with the Bucks in 1968, made their only other finals appearance in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They hadn’t even made the playoffs since 2010 and just two years ago were last in the Western Conference with a 19-63 record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nba.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHOENIX (AP) Chris Paul esper\u00f3 16 a\u00f1os para llegar a las Finales de la NBA, y trajo consigo a un equipo hambriento por su primer campeonato. El escenario era completamente nuevo. La actuaci\u00f3n fue la misma del viejo Chris Paul. \u00abS\u00f3lo sab\u00eda que estaba listo\u00bb, dijo el alero de Phoenix, Mikal Bridges. \u00abHa preparado toda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111320,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111317\/revisions\/111320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportseco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}