The Golden State Warriors faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in their first matchup of the In-Season Tournament. A contest that witnessed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench did go down to the wire. Ultimately, with Stephen Curry recording a solid 30-point near triple-double, the Bay Area side clinched a 141-139 win.
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Chris Paul came off the bench for the fourth time this season and had a horrific shooting display. The Point God made none of his six attempts from the field, which included two long-range attempts as well.
Despite finishing the night with merely 1 point on a horrendous 0/0/50 shooting split, CP3 recorded the team’s second-highest box plus-minus of +6. That’s because Paul had incredible contributions, playmaking-wise. The undersized guard dished out 13 assists and didn’t even record a single turnover.
Steph Curry was in awe of his teammate’s impressive assist-to-turnover ratio. Following the game, the two-time MVP revealed how effective CP has been for the Warriors.
“It’s impressive to say the least. His ability to see the court, he really got JK going… got Mose some good looks, Dario obviously got some good looks the whole game. He just has a knack for it. Watch out when he starts making shots. That’s gonna be the fun part, when he puts it all together. It’s very, very impressive. I am super jealous of the assist-to-turnover ratio. I do not have that in my bag,” Curry said.
Chris Paul has had incredible contributions for Stephen Curry and co.
In terms of shooting, Chris Paul hasn’t had quite the start with the GSW as he’d expect. So far, Paul has recorded 33.9% FG and 4.8% 3FG. Despite his awful shooting production, he considers it a “luxury” that the GSW can win games.
“They ain’t going in. But good thing about it is that’s not the normal. It’s crazy to think I can score 1 point, 2 points and we can still win,” Paul admitted.
Paul has been the starting guard for whatever franchise he was a part of until he joined the Warriors. Breaking a 19-year long streak, a few games back, Chris Paul made the first-ever off-the-bench appearance of his career.
While the 38-year-old wasn’t too thrilled with the idea initially, Steve Kerr was extremely happy to see the veteran make the adjustment. Thanks to Chris Paul leading the team’s second unit, after a long time, the Warriors are performing well during the non-Steph minutes. Having an incredible trait of making his teammates better, Chris Paul has managed to bring the best out of Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and others.
