Chris Paul ‘dunks’ mercilessly all over Wizards as Clippers roll
Chris Paul does a great many things on the basketball court — manipulate defenses with the threat of his dribble penetration, defeat coverages with picture-perfect passes to diving teammates, bomb away on them with his shooting, knife into passing lanes, manhandle opposing point guards, and much more. One thing the Los Angeles Clippers All-Star point guard doesn’t do that often, though? Dunk the basketball.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
This is to be expected, of course. CP3 stands 6 feet even and, at age 30, in his 11th NBA season and with a history of knee, hip, groin and hamstring injuries, he’s not quite as explosive off the floor these days as he was as a younger man. Heading into Monday’s action, Paul had yet to dunk this season. He hadn’t dunked since a Jan. 31, 2015, win over the San Antonio Spurs. He hadn’t put down multiple dunks in a season in three years.
And then the Clippers visited the Washington Wizards, and with Blake Griffin sidelined by a partially torn left quadriceps tendon, CP3 decided to prove he could give L.A.’s offense the death-from-above jolt it needs in the All-Star power forward’s absence.
First, with the Clips already out to a double-digit lead just 6 1/2 minutes into the contest, a cherry-picking Paul found himself all alone in the paint after a steal-and-outlet by teammate Luc Richard Mbah a Moute:
Granted, that’s not exactly Latrell Sprewell-style two-handed thunder, but Paul got up and put it down — much to the shock of his teammates on the Clippers bench, to whom Paul immediately played with his hands raised after the finish.
That, in and of itself, would’ve marked this as a memorable enough night of flight for the eight-time All-Star. But then, in the second quarter, Paul ran a side pick-and-roll on the left wing with center DeAndre Jordan, and upon splitting the double-team of swingman Otto Porter and center Marcin Gortat, found nothing between him and the basket but open space and rookie Kelly Oubre. That, evidently, wasn’t enough to dissuade CP3 from trying to soar:
Again: perhaps not a full-fledged, no-doubt-about-it, according-to-Hoyle throwdown. But try telling that to Paul, to his apoplectic teammates on the Clipper bench, and to Oubre, who drew the foul but didn’t stop the finish, giving CP3 an old-fashioned three-point play in a way that somehow manages to be both ages-old and a brand-new sight for many in the audience … while also sealing Paul’s first multi-dunk game in nearly three years. (Or, if you prefer, his first game in quite a while with “a pair of dunk-ish shots,” as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register put it.)
Don’t get it twisted, though — Paul’s not just a dunker now. He can still do downright evil things to defense even when he’s not cocking the hammer and tomahawking all over them, as evidenced by this brilliant feed for a Jordan flush (that looked just a bit more forceful than either of his point guard’s finishes):
Paul finished with a team-high 23 points on 9-for-20 shooting with seven assists and five rebounds in 27 1/2 minutes of playing time to lead the Clippers to a 108-91 win over the Wizards on Monday. Jordan made all six of his field-goal attempts and three of his six free-throw tries, scoring 15 points with 13 rebounds and two assists in 28 minutes. Neither played in the fourth quarter, as the Clippers — who led by double-figures for the final 37 minutes and 39 seconds of game time — led by 15 after three quarters and faced little resistance from a Wizards club that shot just 39.1 percent from the field. John Wall finished with 23 points 11 assists and five rebounds, and Porter chipped in 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals off the bench for the Wizards, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped and once again sit under .500 at 14-15.
The Clips have now won two straight since Griffin’s injury and three straight overall, improving to 19-13, the fourth-best record in the Western Conference. Whether they can continue their strong play on their East Coast road trip when they visit the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday remains to be seen, but at least now Doc Rivers knows that when he needs some above-the-rim play, he can let his point guard call his own number. Given how quickly CP3 went from no dunks to trying to put a defender on a poster, an in-game East Bay Funk Dunk can’t possibly be far behind, can it?
More NBA coverage:
– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
