Chris Paul has a long history of not getting along with veteran NBA referee Scott Foster, and the Phoenix Suns star once again alluded to that after the Phoenix Suns lost to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
After the 109-95 loss, Paul ended his press conference by saying the Suns have to limit the Lakers’ free throw attempts going forward in the series. He then noted how L.A. had a lot of free throw attempts in Game 3 before randomly repeating the phrase “11 games in a row.” As Anthony Slater of The Athletic noted, that was a reference to Paul’s teams having now lost 11 straight games when Foster was officiating.
Chris Paul redirected the end of his final three press conference questions tonight to the same stat: "11 games in a row." Paul's teams have lost 11 straight playoff games refereed by Scott Foster. pic.twitter.com/BvbZTGe3eX
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 28, 2021
The Lakers shot 30 free throws on Thursday night compared to the Suns’ 18. In Game 2, the free throw disparity was only 31-30 in favor of L.A.
Paul obviously does not think it is a coincidence that his teams have now lost 11 consecutive games when Foster was one of the officials. CP3 had an issue with Foster in the postseason last year as well. Foster also had a long negative history with the Houston Rockets when Paul was there.
It should be noted that Foster has also worked in Paul’s favor before, but it seems like that hasn’t happened for a while.
Paul did not mention Foster by name, but he could still be fined by the NBA given the history.
