Paul stands tall as he carries team
Guard takes over late, shines with midrange game to force Game 7
NBA players count on Chris Paul to lead them through sometimes chaotic waters as their association president. Meantime, the Oklahoma City Thunder count on Paul to lead them through fourth quarters.
He did it again Monday night, and now the Rockets suddenly have a Game 7 on their hands in the opening round of the NBA playoffs in the bubble near Orlando, Fla.
“It was a great performance by him,” Thunder forward Danilo Gallinari said of Paul, who scored 15 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma City’s 104-100 comeback victory over the Rockets in Game 6. “We know that in the fourth quarter he’s going to hit some important shots, and it was a very good team win.”
It was an awful team loss for the Rockets, considering the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers disposed of the Portland Trail Blazers in their opening-round series 4-1 and will be rested and ready for the Western Conference semifinals.
Had the Rockets won Game 6 — they led by six with less than four minutes remaining — they would have advanced to face the Lakers. Instead, the Rockets, who average 30.1 years of age, have been pushed to the brink by the young Thunder, who average 25.5.
“I thought the entire game our guys were working and really doing the things that we asked them to do,” fifth-year Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “Some of the games we’ve had bad spacing, and we wanted to make sure we had great spacing throughout the game.
“(Then) obviously, Chris made some incredible plays to carry our team. … He’s incredibly smart, and he’s got an incredible will to win.”
The Rockets led 98-92 with 4:19 left when Paul calmly went to work. He knocked down a 27-foot 3pointer with 3:35 left and added a 26-footer 38 seconds later. On the latter, a pumped Paul turned and happily patted his defender on the shot, Robert Covington, on the bottom on their way back up the court.
“His mid-range game is, if not the best in the league, one of the best in the league,” Gallinari said, adding that Paul’s long-range game is equally impressive, especially in clutch time. “He’s been doing it for so many years, it’s nothing new to me. We expect him to make those shots, especially at the end of the game.”
The Rockets last summer traded Paul, 35, to the Thunder for Oklahoma City icon Russell Westbrook, who missed the first four games of this series with a strained quad muscle. While a rusty Westbrook struggled mightily as Monday’s game wore on, Paul shined.
Paul’s two free throws lifted Oklahoma City to a 102-100 lead with 13.1 seconds left, and then Westbrook turned over the ball on the other end.
“It’s not just me; it’s our whole team. We do it by committee,” Paul said in deflecting the heaps of praise headed his way after the comeback. “We’ve been in these situations all season long, and we’ve (learned) to just thrive in them.”
Paul added that “bubble life is different” and that the Thunder’s bags already were packed in the event they lost.
“They have you packed and ready just in case, and you have to leave the next day,” he said. “But we’re not ready to go yet. We’ve had a memorable season, and we’re going to continue to fight. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
As for a Game 7 against the team he played the last two seasons for, the team that traded him away?
“When you’re as competitive as myself and the guys on this team,” Paul said with a smile, “it wouldn’t matter if it was my mom and aunties over there.”