Woody Paige: Nuggets will oust cheap-shot artist CP3 and the Suns from playoffs

May 4—Happy 38th birthday Saturday, Chris Paul. Get well soon, Babe Ruthless. The Nuggets miss you.

The Phoenix point guard positively should be placed in a position to lose a playoff series for the 15th consecutive year, including once before to the Nuggets.

The Suns do not stand a crotch-puncher's chance with or without Paul, who has cheap-shotted Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic in the series. They will fall in five.

In 2009 Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups et al closed out Paul and the then New Orleans Hornets in five games — highlighted for the Nuggets by the most lop-sided victory (58 points) in NBA playoff history, still a record. Paul scored four pitiful points.

The Nuggets lead the series with Paul's fifth team 2-0. The Suns were supposed to be championship contenders and have a stress-free time against Denver.

However, Phoenix' favorite Sun, in the paradox of irony, was injured in the second half of Game 2 by straining his own groin. He left the court and probably won't be able to play in the next two games in the desert.

Paul is a serial below-the-belt blaster. He has been responsible for more groin groans, grunts and gripes than anyone else in basketball.

Instead of CP3, Chris Paul's nickname should be DCP — Dirty Cheap-shot Paul.

He is foul.

More than two dozen examples of Paul's punk plays have been documented since he was a Wake Forest star in the ACC tournament in 2005 when he punched N.C. State's Julius Hodge (who would be drafted by the Nuggets, but played in the pros just two seasons) in the nether region.

Paul has been caught clearly striking players in their private parts in seven situations. One was against Kevin Durant long before he became Paul's new teammate. The last was in Game 2 when Chris Appalling whacked Jokic. But Paul grabbed his own groin in pain after wrangling for a rebound with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

If the over-under on minutes before Paul committing a deliberate dirty act in the opening game of the Suns-Nuggets playoff series was 42 then he was right there. After Jamal Murray connected on a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter as Paul clanked two three-pointers at the other end, the Nuggets were humiliating the NBA favored sons and Suns 114-95 with six minutes left.

Bruce Brown stole the ball from Durant and passed to Murray, who had treated Paul and the Suns like a borrowed burro. He was racing for breakaway guppy when, at 5:54, he intentionally was body-slammed to the hardwood by insurance salesperson Paul. The foul play was a flagrant 1 or 2 as Paul went for the baller, not the ball. But the NBA referees conferred, checked the replay and wrongly called the crash "a common foul."

The six-footer always has displayed a Napoleonic Complex on the court. DCP strikes at the jaw and the throat, the shoulder and the hip, the back and the butt and, most often, the most vulnerable area. Among his victims have been LeBron James, Marc Gasol, Pat Beverly, Andrew Bogut, Rajon Rondo, Chris Kaman, Boogie Cousins, Darren Collison, Jose Alvarado, Draymond Green and now Murray and Jokic.

Green, of all people, called Paul a dirty player. In fact, Paul frequently has been characterized as one of the dirtiest players of all time in the NBA.

However, the future Hall of Famer's shameful strategy never has won him an NBA title.

There was a time, though, that the young Paul did not think about trying to intimidate the Nuggets. The 2009 Nuggets had Kenyon Martin at power forward. Paul and nobody else would mess with power(ful) forward Martin.

Two years ago the Suns squelched the Nuggets, who were missing Murray, 4-0. This time the Nuggets have him and three important reserves. The Suns have no bench.

After Game 1, Murray responded to Paul with: "I'm not here to start nothing. I'm just trying to play a game. If that that, he does it. Y'all can judge by itself or look at his history."

Paul, who has a history of injuries, will be replaced Friday at point guard by Cam Payne (Campaign?). He has been no factor in the series.

If the Nuggets are fortunate they will see Paul again before the Suns and the Crotch-clouter are eradicated.