Chris Paul’s edge has Suns out for ‘revenge’

PHOENIX — He manipulates everything, from the clock to the opponent’s defensive coverages to the officials with some well-timed chicanery.

It’s fair to say the Dallas Mavericks fell apart in the final 12 minutes of a winnable Game 2 that would’ve given a young team so much momentum before heading home for a couple games.

But it’s more apt to say Chris Paul tore them apart every which way with yet another sterling fourth-quarter performance, his last as a 36-year-old.

A six-point lead turned to 10, then 15, then infinity as Paul used all his stones to power the Suns to a 2-0 Western Conference semifinal lead with a 129-109 win at Footprint Center. Fourteen of Paul’s 28 points came in the final quarter — all of them coming in the first six minutes.

He kept looking to the Dallas sideline, motioning to coach Jason Kidd, to others as his destruction almost appeared in slow motion. Faster defenders flew by him, but he out-quicked the leapers in rising up to his sweet spots for devastating twos.

Paul knew he had Dallas on the ropes, motioning for the “timeout” sign at the 8:05 mark of the fourth. Scoring or assisting on the first 19 points of the quarter, he closed the door — and let everyone know about it.

Backcourt mate Devin Booker called it a “Revenge Tour” for the Suns, who seem on a mission to avenge their Finals loss last summer to the Milwaukee Bucks.

And Paul is the unflinching, ornery general.

“Just into the game. Techs don’t need to be called or what not,” Paul said. “When you’re in the playoffs, both teams at it, getting into it and saying stuff. It’s all in the game.”

Of the four remaining point guards in the West, Paul is the most traditional — the one who can take the game plan from the whiteboard and implement it in real time, the one who can make adjustments on the fly and to this point, the one who can shift gears and morph into a different being when the time calls for it.

It’s also the perfect dichotomy to his former…