Suns Follow PatBev's Advice To Bench Chris Paul, Rally From 22 Down To Shock Mavs On Winning Shot By Damion Lee

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What a dramatic arc for Damion Lee. You go, man! From riding the bench as an NBA champion with the Warriors last year to — did I see this right? — replacing Point God Chris Paul in crunch time for the Suns and hitting a TOUGH game-winner against a Mavs team that obliterated Phoenix 123-90 to finish last year's postseason with an abrupt thud?

This is the type of stuff that's stranger than fiction. CP3 riding the pine following 30 minutes of work, one made field goal and six points. In comes Lee hitting big shot after big shot. It looked like Luka Doncic and the Mavs were going to high step over the Suns on this evening yet again and rub their noses in that brutal playoff exit. Just so happens I wrote about that with a headline you might enjoy…

But on Wednesday evening, the Suns collectively proclaimed…

Damion Lee has the heart of a champion. And credit Phoenix for not throwing in the towel upon trailing by 22 points. Would've been easy to pack it in given how the last matchup went. Head coach Monty Williams' leadership is under the microscope given his rather chilly relationship with star center Deandre Ayton. CP3 is due to be finished any day now. The Suns need guys like Lee to step up, and damn did they ever on this occasion.

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Here at Barstool Sports, it just so happens that we recently launched a podcast hosted by Rone and Patrick Beverley. Like many across the NBA, PatBev has some beef with Chris Paul. I would like to direct you to a quote by our guy that most folks would view as outlandish on the surface…until, you know, it was more or less JUST PROVEN TO BE 100% CORRECT.

Yeah check that date. This was back in May. You could argue PatBev is just being biased and letting his personal feelings get into the mix on this piping-hot take. Guess what? Maybe he's fucking right. 

Bet you didn't see that coming!

Anyway, regarding who did play and help the Suns to victory, Lee wound up with 11 points. All of them were in the fourth quarter. Cameron Johnson appears to be a fixture in the starting five now and was a key player in the comeback with 15 of his own. Of course, Devin Booker led the hosts in scoring 28, yet he was double-teamed and forced to give up the ball on the decisive possession. Turned out to be a great decision, as Lee made it, and Luka missed a patented, slightly too far away stepback 3-pointer at the buzzer.

What a finish! And yeah, I'm salty as fuck that I had a whole column ready about how Christian Wood — who scored 16 straight Mavs points at one point and finished with 25 — might be the Robin to Luka's Batman. 

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I suppose we'll let the jury still be out on that until Dallas picks up a win this season, which shouldn't be long from now. At this moment, Suns fans should be ecstatic that they got basically jack shit from Chris Paul other than some average-for-him assist numbers and still beat a quality opponent. Maybe their championship window doesn't slam shut once CP3 calls it a career. 

Lotta season left.

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok