Noted Utah Jazz killer Chris Paul won’t be able to help his Houston Rockets when they play host to the Jazz band on Wednesday.
Let’s not mince words here — the Houston Rockets’ Chris Paul is kind of annoying. Not just in his demeanor toward other players (including his own teammates), but in his ability to rip the beating hearts out of opposing fanbases with his play. The Utah Jazz experienced this firsthand during the 2018 NBA Playoffs.
Over that five-game stretch, he ran roughshod over the Ricky Rubio-less Jazz, scoring nearly 25 points and adding seven boards and six assists per game while shooting 44 percent from deep. However, when the teams square off this week for the first time in the 2018-19 season, Paul won’t be doing any heartbreaking.
CP3 has been suspended without pay for two games, including the Jazz-Rockets affair on Wednesday.
The suspension came as a result of the Rockets’ scrum with the LA Lakers over the weekend. It was the ultimate match-up of surly NBA floor generals as LA’s Rajon Rondo spit on Paul, which prompted the latter to poke at Rondo’s face, after which Rondo threw punches.
It was like a battle for supremacy between the Darth Maul and Darth Vader of being annoying. The whole thing was bananas, and LeBron James was caught in the middle as his current teammate and Banana Boat teammate tangled; poor guy.
Here’s the tape —
The Lakers and Rockets threw punches at Staples 😳 pic.twitter.com/YKWRkqHnXF
— ESPN (@espn) October 21, 2018
The brawl was so crazy that the duo’s significant others may have been involved. Per the LA Sentinel, Rondo’s girlfriend shoved Jada Paul, CP3’s wife, who was sitting next to Savannah James, LeBron’s significant other.
For his part in the throwdown, Rondo was suspended for three games. The Lakers’ Brandon Ingram incurred a four-game suspension for escalating the action and throwing a punch or two of his own. But Paul was the big loser financially; his lost pay via suspension will amount to something in the neighborhood of $500,000.
This all works out pretty well for the Jazz, though, as they’ll be in an all-out war with the Rockets for top playoff seeding throughout the year. Sans Paul, the Rockets are still formidable, but the Jazz now have a good shot at getting a leg up in the season series.
It’s a pretty big break for Utah in their biggest game of the early season.