Chris Paul waited 16 years for his first NBA Finals game and seized the moment.

Chris Paul waited 16 years for his first NBA Finals game and seized the moment.

Shaking off a left ankle turn and a sore left hand, the 36-year-old future Hall of Fame point guard scored 16 of his game-high 32 points on seven shots in a third quarter that blew open what to that point was an evenly matached series opener, and his Phoenix Suns rolled to a 118-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Suns host the Bucks again Friday for Game 2 at 1:am GMT on ABC.

In the hour before tipoff on Tuesday, Milwaukee gave Giannis Antetokounmpo the green light to play on his hyperextended left knee and ran the first play of the game to get him a rolling alley-oop attempt at the rim. If he was hindered by the injury, it was hard to tell, especially on his chase-down block late in the first half.

Antetokounmpo collected 20 points and 17 rebounds in defeat.

Paul abused Milwaukee bigs Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis on switches in the pick and roll, creating for himself and others with the aplomb of an 11-time All-Star who had seen everything the game has to offer but its biggest stage. And he commanded the spotlight, making 12 of 19 shots and issuing nine assists.

In the final two minutes of the opening half, five straight points from Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges turned a one-possession edge into a 57-49 lead at the break, and the Suns kept their foot on the gas. Paul scored his team’s first six points of the second half, including a four-point play on which he turned his left ankle over a hard Lopez close-out. That pushed the Phoenix lead to double digits, and it climbed as high as 20 points.

“I’m the old head who likes to slow it down sometimes,” Paul told ESPN’s Malika Andrews at the start of an on-court interview that followed his masterful performance, “but in this series we’ve got to play with pace.”