As a Hall-of-Fame point guard, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd understands the challenge that Chris Paul presents, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Paul, who will turn 37 this week, is coming off one of the best playoff games of his career, making all 14 of his shots from the field and scoring 33 points Thursday as the Suns closed out the Pelicans.
“He’s perfected the point guard position,” Kidd said. “As you get more reps and you see different defenses, you start to understand what you have to do, and he knows how to move the pieces to get that advantage. When you talk about IQ, it’s off the charts and his competitiveness is off the charts and his will is off the charts. All the things that are off the charts, you’ve just got to make it tough on him.”
Dallas will counter with All-Star point guard Luka Doncic, who was also dominant in the first round after returning from a strained calf. Doncic indicated that the Mavs will try to be physical with Paul, but there’s no set way to contain him.
“It’s hard to slow him down,” Doncic said. “Like you saw in the last game, he didn’t miss. That was pretty crazy.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Suns were fined $25K for not disclosing Devin Booker‘s status for Game 6 against New Orleans in “an accurate and timely manner,” according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Booker missed three games in the series with a strained right hamstring before returning on Thursday.
- In an interview with TMZ Sports, Lakers swingman Kent Bazemore defended LeBron James against his critics and said he would like to re-sign with the team in free agency. Bazemore only played 39 games after signing with L.A. last summer, but he said there’s something special about playing for the team. “What I’ll say is nothing ain’t much better than being a Laker, right?” Bazemore said. “So, getting to see (Kobe Bryant‘s) numbers on the wall every day I went to practice was good inspiration for me. … There’s nothing like it, man. It’s a storied franchise.”
- Warriors forward Andre Iguodala has been ruled out of the first two games of the team’s second-round series vs. Memphis, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Iguodala is dealing with a cervical disc injury in his neck.
Kent Bazemore is finished. It’s over.
When a player gets older and doesn’t contribute to an average NBA team that’s fighting for the playoffs, he will usually latch onto a championship aspiring team to be a veteran presence on the bench who doesn’t complain or whine or disrupt team chemistry.
He won’t complain about minutes or touches, he’s just glad to be there, and hopefully will provide quality spot Duty in case of foul trouble or injury.
As with Bazemore he’s just glad to look up and see Kobe’s numbers in the rafters at practice. Nice career but he’s done.
It’s Bazemore’s way of trying to stay sane for not signng with Warriors. :)
Andre Iguodala out for a couple of games, enter Jonathan kuminga !!
Otto Porter Jr might be on hand to have a slight increase in minutes but you have to be very careful with him as he is easily nicked up. This is a contract year for Porter and he doesn’t want to decrease the odds of a nice 3 year contract this summer.
Otto’s had a great year but he’s been very careful to monitor his minutes load and back-to-back games appearances. Warriors did the same sort of thing with Andre Iguodala at 37 but Porter’s only 28. Unfortunately he has a fragile body.
If only OPJ could remember how to shoot open 3s things would be awesome.
He’s looking better in the second half. Nice run here. Doing it with defense and rebounding.
If Mavs are able to handle Ayton to 12 pts and 10 rebounds per game, Mavs can win the series
Luka and Brunson are better than Paul and Booker
Hey good call about Gary Payton starting. Steve Kerr read your post !!
Warriors in five.
No way Sillivan. Suns handle the Mavericks easily. The big if is Booker and Chris Paul health. Should be a breeze if they stay on the floor.
Love the Suns getting cagey in order to beat the number 9 Pels…
The jazz series took to much out of the Mavericks. The suns will dominate in 5.
“Give the game away Klay” is such a selfish player. Hard to watch
Yes but less than a minute later “save the game Klay for 3.” Then again less than a minute later “defensive play of the game Klay.”
It all worked out in the end. Thank goodness. Very entertaining game the Grizzlies only had two guys show up and still made it a game. What happens when Brooks and Bane take and make more shots? Going to be a tough series.
Warriors in five.
I think Klay’s attitude has helped him regain his form on both sides relatively quickly for being so long off… and missing so often whan he did return after 2.5 years. His shooting release is way fast.
GSW fans might be more critical than a neutral, given the wait.
During the regular season when Klay came back he was shooting everything. I believe it was his way of getting ramped up for the playoffs. Now that we’re here his shooting is huge for them.
Yes it’s funny the criticism of Klay but I don’t believe they are warriors fans. The Fringe fan is used to seeing casual Klay but now he’s coming from two years away from the game so he’s angry Klay.
At 32 years old he wants to prove he can still do it. Very understandable from a player’s perspective.