OKC's first NBA hero reaches West final
It’s hard to remember when Chris Paul was our first NBA hero. It’s been more than 11 years since CP3 played his final game in Oklahoma City colors, for the 2006-07 Hornets, who went back to New Orleans. Fourteen months after that emotional farewell, the Sonics moved to town, and everyone from Hugo the Hornet to Chris Paul became, in the words of Natalie Cole, someone that we used to love.
Down in New Orleans, then in Los Angeles, Paul became an iconic NBA superstar. The Point God, they called him, because he was a throwback. The closest thing to Jason Kidd or John Stockton that the contemporary game provided.
In Paul’s 10 seasons after his two OKC years, he averaged 10.2 assists per game but became a sympathetic figure. While Russell Westbrook and Tony Parker and later Steph Curry became Western Conference Finals staples, and even Mike Conley — a CP3 facsimile — got in on the action, Paul’s teams never made it past the second round of the playoffs.
Until Tuesday night, when Paul’s Rockets beat Utah 112-102 to win that West semifinal in five games.
And Houston did it with Paul looking more like Curry than Stockton.
The little guy is all grown up as a basketball player. Tuesday night, Paul wasn’t a throwback point guard. He was a throw-it-in-the-hoop shooting guard. Teamed with James Harden in
Houston this season, Paul let someone else quarterback the squad. The ball is in Harden’s hands the majority of Rocket games, which seems counter-productive for any team that has the Point God. But not so. Harden averaged 8.8 assists per game, Paul 7.9 per game, and Houston became the No. 1 seed in the West.
And Wednesday night, we saw Paul in all his versatile glory.
CP3 scored a careerplayoff-high 41 points, while also posting 10 assists, seven rebounds and no turnovers. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first playoff game of at least 40 points, 10 assists and no turnovers since turnovers became an official statistic 40 years ago, and it’s hard to believe anyone had 10 turnovers before that, because old-school coaches would bench even a star who was that careless with the ball.
The Jazz, playing without their two top point guards (the injured Ricky Rubio and Dante Exum), gamely stayed in the game even after star Donovan Mitchell was injured in the fourth quarter. But Paul didn’t let the Rockets falter.
Paul scored 20 fourthquarter points for Houston, the highest-scoring quarter of his career, playoff or regular season.
Half a minute into the fourth quarter, Paul made a 3-point shot to cut into Utah’s five-point lead, and CP3 finished the quarter by making all four of his 3-point shots, including the backbreaker— a banked-in 26-footer that gave Houston a 105-96 lead with 2:30 left in the game.
Paul’s final stat line reads like a Curry game for the ages: 13-of-22 shooting, 8-of-10 3-point shooting, 7-of-8 foul shooting, seven rebounds, 10 assists, no turnovers and plus-20 in point differential.
In the final six minutes, which began with Houston leading 94-89, Paul scored 15 points. The only non-Paul points came on a Paul assist to P.J. Tucker for a 3-pointer. The Jazz, incredibly, pulled within 97-96 with 4½ minutes remaining. Then Paul made jumpers on the next four Rocket possessions. The consummate point guard became a ball-dominant shotmaker.
“Unbelievable,” Harden said after the game. “He went out there and took over the game. “Especially for an opportunity like he’s never had before, he went to go get it. He put us all back and said, ‘Listen, I got us.’ That’s big time right there. That’s a big-time performance. He got in his bag and he called everybody off. He said, ‘You get out the way. I’m going to put us on my back.’ He had that look in his eyes.”
Paul had been the most decorated player in NBA history without a conference finals appearance. Paul and Dominique Wilkins each have nine allstar game appearances.
Now Wilkins stands alone with having not made an NBA final four.