Six down, one going. After a game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder and a back-to-back game 6, Chris Paul almost single-handedly pushed his team to a 104-100 victory. The Rockets and Thunder will be the winners, winning the match on Wednesday. To determine who will advance to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round, and that’s thanks to Paul. Oklahoma City were the NBA’s best clutch team in the regular season, and Paul had 14 fourth-quarter points that added to that.
Houston, meanwhile, has to go back to the rumbling hotel at all their missing opportunities to stop this thing. They took part in the second half and consolidated a 32-point performance from James Harden. But Russell Westbrook hung the ball in the final moments, and Houston couldn’t put it on the late-game points board. He was responsible for seven of Houston’s 22 turnovers, and if he can’t get up with his act quickly, Houston’s season is set to end abruptly on Wednesday.
Here are three main remedies from Monday night’s game.
1. The story of “Chris Paul can’t win in the playoffs” ends
The idea that Chris Paul was a shard based on two different playoff losses was always ridiculous. Statistically, Paul has always been better in the playoffs than in the regular season, although he can prevent losses for which he could not stop. Is it his fault that Josh Smith and Corey Brewer went to the biggest shooting island of their lives? Paul had 31 points and 11 assists in the playoff game against Houston. Oklahoma City needed everyone at its 28 tonight. They need his prowess all season.
The Thunder were the best clutch team in the NBA this season by record and net rating. It was not close. It’s the same for the Chris Paul course. His teams are almost universally better at the clutch than the course of the game. Paul made his feelings clear on his two big 3-pointers: he lives for such moments. Most players don’t.
Chris Paul will probably retire one day without the championship ring. No one should care. There are very few players in the history of basketball who come forward more consistently when they are the most important.
2. Houston Russell lost the Westbrook trade
Russell Westbrook turnover is nothing new. Its defensive defects are ideal. His career has long been characterized by poor 3-point shooting. Houston knew all this when he traded for it. They left a point guard in the pole who fully admired James Harden for getting it for a variety of controversial reasons, but the biggest, implicit of them all, was a belief that Westbrook was fundamentally capable of changing as a player.
Again, they knew who they were getting. No one expected Westbrook to turn into Stephen Curry, and the regular season Westbrook, to his credit, would cut off many of his bad habits. His shot selection was good. It thrives without a center. But in the biggest moment of the season, Westbrook returned to their worst possible version. Former MVP, James Harden, perhaps the best scorer on earth, was able to take just one shot in the competitive part of the final four minutes of the game. It was a step 3-pointer to the closing shot clock. Westbrook monopolized the ball under the stretch, and Houston scored just two points in the final four minutes.
It wouldn’t have mattered if he had made his shots to Westbrook because they shouldn’t have taken them in the first place. One of the greatest clutch scorers in history, Paul realized that in the biggest moments of the game, Harden needed to keep the ball in his hands. Obviously, Westbrook does not, and this trade will be detrimental to the Rockets unless it fails to understand this simple reality.
3. Billy Donovan needs to accept what his best lineup is
The Thunder are outscored by 50 points with Steven Adams on the floor in this series. He scored just six points on nine shots in Game 6, allowing him to build against the defense, with easy dunks and laps. Meanwhile, the small lineups of Chris Paul, Shy Gilgius-Alexander, Dennis Schroeder, Lou Dort and Danilo Galinari won them games and and won at crunch time … despite being the best plus-minus of any Oklahoma City Fivesome. This series (+10) he has played only 14 total minutes.
Steven Adams is a very valuable player … mostly. This is a rare occasion in which its shortcomings as a traditional center somewhat make it obsolete. Paul pulled the Thunder down, but the game would have been easily lost at the end of Adams’ blocked game. If he’s not going to get easy points to grant his easy size, Oklahoma City need to focus on distance and play Galinari in the center. He has worked in this series and that means in this matchup. Thunder is less talented than rockets. They can’t beat themselves with sub-best lineup choices.
