Chris Paul takes issue with young fan touching his mom during Phoenix Suns' Game 4 road loss to Mavericks

DALLAS — Chris Paul’s day was going bad enough.

The Phoenix Suns All-Star point guard fouled out with 8:58 left in Game 4 that ended with a 111-101 loss Sunday to the Dallas Mavericks before a sellout crowd of 20,610 at American Airlines Center that evened the Western Conference semifinals series.

Then it got worse.

A young male fan "put his hands" on Paul’s mom during the fourth quarter and Paul nearly went into the stands after his father told him about it, a witness in the seating area told The Republic.

Paul addressed the situation on Twitter.

“Wanna fine players for saying stuff to the fans but the fans can put they hands on our families….(expletive) that!!” Paul tweeted.

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The Mavericks responded with a statement after being contacted by The Republic about Paul's tweet.

“The Dallas Mavericks are aware of an incident between a fan and the family of Chris Paul. It was unacceptable behavior and will not be tolerated. The Mavericks, along with American Airlines Center, swiftly removed the fan from today’s game,"

The Mavericks released a second statement that their investigation that two "unruly" fans were removed from the arena after attempting "unwanted hugs" and conversations with Pauls' family and have been banned until 2023.

The witness said Suns security made arena security aware of the situation. A second witness believes it happened shortly after Paul fouled out.

Once made aware of what happened, Paul looked to go into the stands before Suns assistant Mark Bryant and Jarrett Jack kept him back.

As the fan was leaving with a female adult, Paul had words for him.

"Hey, hey, I'll see you later, I'll see you later," Paul screamed at the fan. "I'll see you later."

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Paul's wife and kids also attended the game. His family sat close to the Suns' bench. ESPN is reporting Paul's wife was also pushed.

After the game, Paul was the first Suns player in the visiting media room and was answering questions before teammate Devin Booker joined him.

The two All-Stars often do joint postgame interviews and leave together.

This time, Paul left early in a bit of haste while Booker was still answering questions.

The fan incident was the worst part of this Mother's Day that saw Paul pick up four fouls in the first half with the final one coming with 1.1 seconds left in the second quarter.

Scoring just five points for the game on 2-of-4 shooting, Paul went after his miss and was called for a foul.

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Mavs All-Star Luka Doncic made both free throws to give Dallas a 68-56 halftime lead.

"I should've kept Chris out of the game, especially right before halftime," Suns coach Monty Williams said.

Williams challenged Paul's fifth foul with 9:32 left in the third quarter as he was called for an offensive foul for slowing down with the dribble in front of a pursing Jalen Brunson.

"I can't put myself in those situations to give them that ability to do that," Paul said. "I've just got to look at myself and figure out how to be better."

The coach's challenge was ruled unsuccessful.

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"Just trying to save our guy," Williams said. "Hopefully they turn it over, but that's just one where you use it to save one of your starters from getting a high foul number."

Missing the remainder of the third quarter, Paul checked into the game with 10:28 left in the fourth only to pick up his sixth foul to foul out less than two minutes later.

"It was crazy, man," Paul said. "It was crazy. Tough. Tough. We've got to bounce back Game 5 (Tuesday in Phoenix)."

Paul was coming off a rough Game 3 as he committed a season-high seven turnovers on his 37th birthday in Friday's 103-94 loss.

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Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fan removed after incident with Chris Paul's mom in Suns Game 4 loss