BIRTH OF A RIVALRY
Two decades later, Paul and Tucker reunited for a chance to win it all
On the night Chris Paul and P.J. Tucker shot better than they had in an NBA playoff game, Paul thought about the more than two decades since he first met Tucker, who in Paul’s memory, carried 245 pounds of power forward muscle as a 10-year-old.
“Man, Tuck has been the same size since he was 10 years old,” Paul said.
Paul was not telling tall tales of Tucker’s dominance in games of recess dodgeball. Instead, he thought of the times they could have gone from friends to teammates, and finally last summer they did.
“We used to play AAU basketball against each other since we were like 10, 11 years old,” Paul said. “It’s crazy because Daryl (Morey, the Rockets’ general manager) came up to me after the game (on Tuesday) and was talking about when my trade happened and I had a chance to opt in (to his contract). That’s what gave us the ability to get
Tuck. I was at Tyson Chandler’s house when Tuck hit me and said he was thinking about coming here. I was like ‘definitely.’
“We were supposed to go to college together. So for us and our families to know each other as well as we know each other and finally get the opportunity to play together on the same team after knowing each other for so long and both of us never being past (the second) round, it’s cool and special to get a chance to do it with a guy I’ve been with since we were little.”
Interjected James Harden: “Cute love story, man.” “Hey, relax,” Paul shot back. There is, however, a lot of those sort of sentiments this time of year with the NBA playoffs down to four teams and championship aspirations seeming more real with each round. For Paul and Tucker, the long way from Winston-Salem and Raleigh, respectively, and from North Carolina AAU games to the Western Conference finals with the Rockets took more than Paul opting into his contract, allowing the Rockets to keep their full mid-level exception that they would use on Tucker.
“Without Chris doing that maneuver and sacrificing money to come here, we don’t have P.J. on this team,” Morey said.
Better than expectations
It took, among other things, Paul hitting 13 of 22 shots and Tucker 7 of 9 on Tuesday to eliminate the Utah Jazz and take Paul and Tucker deeper in the playoffs than they have ever been. While it was generally Paul’s night, as he scored a career playoff-high 41 points with 10 assists, Tucker offered another reminder of how crucial his acquisition has been.
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said Tucker has been all the Rockets thought he would be, with one difference.
“(He’s) better,” D’Antoni said. “He’s been a bear defensively and tough rebounding and hitting 3s,” D’Antoni said. “His percentage has always been mid-30s (on 3-pointers). Now, he’s upped it a little bit in the playoffs. If it goes back to normal, who knows? And the other thing you hear about is he is an unbelievable teammate. Great. He doesn’t care if he gets two points or 30 points. It doesn’t matter. He just wants to win. He does all the little things like taking charges and going after loose balls. You have to have players like that.”
A career 35.6 percent 3-point shooter, Tucker made 37.1 percent in the regular season, 45.8 percent in the postseason to top the sharpshooters the Rockets and Golden State have coming into the series.
The five 3-pointers he knocked down Tuesday were the most he had made in a playoff game. But he has slipped into his role with the Rockets so seamlessly, it did not seem to be much of a surprise.
“Me, Trevor (Ariza) and Luc (Mbah a Moute), we always talk about it,” Tucker said. “(Paul and Harden) get so much attention, it’s just figuring out the spots and where to go and kind of be able to make plays when they get doubled or when we’re called upon. But for us, it’s always just spacing out the court and taking the shots that we take.
“Those shots that I practice every day, Trevor, Luc, Ryan (Anderson) I mean whoever, whoever subs in, Gerald (Green), it’s just being able to step up and take those shots that we all practice every day and believing in each other. Everybody on our team, you see our bench, everybody believes in each other no matter who goes in the game, so it’s just us doing what we do.”
Summertime work pays off
But it’s one thing to have Harden and Paul get him those shots, another to knock them down, which inspired Harden to do a little storytelling.
“I can just remember as soon as we got Tuck this summer,” Harden said. “Me and him were in Vegas just working out, and he was practicing those same shots. I was kind of getting him ready for the shots that he was going to be ready to take. It’s just great to see him shooting those same shots in big-time games. Like all the work he’s put in every single day, you know, it pays off.”
It has taken him a long way from being a 245-pound 10-yearold.