Cavs start, finish big
CLEVELAND — Guard
Chris Paul was held out of Saturday’s game in Cleveland for rest in the second half of a back-to-back, the first game he has missed this season, other than in his two-game league suspension in the first week of the season.
“They monitor what is best for him,” coach Mike
D’Antoni said of the plan to sit Paul occasionally in back-to-backs. “This is what they think they should be doing.”
Paul is the Rockets’ second-leading scorer, averaging 17.9 points per game, and assists leader, averaging 7.7.
After going 1-of-7 in the first half Friday, Paul was 6-of-8 the rest of the way, scoring 14 of his 20 points. The game was the first the Rockets have lost this season when Paul scores 20 or more points, having won their first six of those games. They are 23-2 in the past two seasons when Paul scores 20 or more points. In his past five games, Paul has averaged 19 points on 52.4 percent shooting and 45.2 percent 3-point shooting. 2nd unit needs to produce The Rockets’ confidence their bench scoring would pick up had been largely based on the expectation Eric Gordon would get going from the perimeter, an option unavailable to the second unit with Gordon starting Saturday. But coach Mike D’Antoni said the Rockets need more production from the second unit, if only to take pressure off the scorers in the starting lineup.
“Our bench has to produce a little bits more,” D’Antoni said after Friday’s loss. “We got to get something out of it. We’re not getting a lot of production there. It puts a lot of extra strain on the guys doing it, playing a lot of minutes with our starters.”
The bench went into Saturday’s game averaging 27.4 points per game, the least in the NBA, with the worst shooting percentage (37.7 percent) and worst 3-point percentage (26.8 percent) in the NBA. Drummond goaltended The Rockets argued Friday night that Chris
Paul’s late 3-pointer should have been ruled goaltending on Pistons center Andre Drummond. On Saturday, the NBA agreed.
The league’s last twominute report ruled “Drummond (DET) makes contact with the ball while it is still in the imaginary cylinder above the basket ring.”