2012 NBA Playoffs: Chris Paul Shows Why He Is the NBA's Best Clutch Player

I've been saying it virtually every chance I get, and I'll keep saying until—I don't know, but there's no stopping me now!

Chris Paul is the best crunch-time player in the NBA today. (Yeah, I put it in bold.) And his sublime fourth-quarter performance in Game 1 of L.A.'s first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies further reiterated my claim.

It starts with his leadership and attitude, infectious qualities which carry over to his teammates.

Forget basketball players, few human beings are as competitive as CP3. He refused to quit in last night's game, even when the Los Angeles Clippers fell behind by 24 points—with the margin heading the wrong way too—with a mere eight minutes left in the final frame.

Even after seeing what happened to Derrick Rose—who stayed in a game that seemed to be already decided—Paul, a guy who's only two years removed from his own debilitating knee injury, implored his coach to remain in the game and have one final crack at making it a contest.

And did he ever. Paul orchestrated one of the greatest comebacks in NBA postseason history, leading the Clippers on a 28-3 run to finish the game en route to a reality-defying one-point win in Memphis.

Along the way, CP3 proved once more why there's no one better to lead a club in the clutch.

Normally this season, Paul's crunch-time MO has been to take over games himself, ranking in the top five in the league in clutch scoring. In Game 1, though, he realized that his teammates were ready to share the load.

Paul, who was also in the top 10 in the NBA in clutch assists, assisted on six of LA's nine non-Paul baskets. He scored or assisted on 20 of the Clippers' last 28 points.

During those unbelievable eight minutes, the Clippers scored those 28 points on just 18 possessions. And in the 13 possessions they had in which Paul created the action, they scored 22 points. That's an absurd rate of 169 points per 100 possessions. 

I know, it's a ridiculously small sample size and an unsustainable pace, but you wouldn't think a team could sustain it for an eight-minute stretch in the fourth quarter either.

In a playoff game.

On the road.

Paul is the only player who could have accomplished that feat, and he has been responsible for that kind of ludicrous efficiency during crunch-time all season long.

It wasn't just the bottom-line numbers that stood out—80 percent shooting from the field and three for the Clippers over the final eight minutes—it was the little things Paul did that no one else in the league could do.

For one, he turned Reggie-Freaking-Evans into a viable threat off the pick-and-roll, assisting on two Evans layups—one of them an and-one which resulted in an extra two points for the Clips after Blake Griffin put back the missed free-throw and the other giving LA their first lead of the entire game in the final minute.

With the Clippers down 12 and just over three minutes to play, the Clippers had a brief run-out following a Memphis miss. Eric Bledsoe panicked in transition and tried to get Paul the basketball near mid-court. A Grizzlies defender had a beat on the pass and was ready to pick it off and take it the other way.

In a split-second, Paul diagnosed the entire situation. He knew that no matter what he did it would result in a turnover. So he made the best of it and did what was best for his team.

Instead of giving up on the bad pass and allowing the Grizzlies a four-on-three fast break with the Clippers caught sprinting the wrong way, Paul snatched the ball out of the defender's grasp and walked with it. 

It was still a turnover—and would now go down in the box score as Paul's turnover—but it stopped play, keeping Memphis from having a huge advantage on the fast break and giving the Clippers a chance to set up their defense and grind out another stop.

Which they did.

When do you ever see a player commit a smart turnover? Only CP3. 

The Grizzlies could have gotten an easy transition basket, got their crowd back into the game and completely turned the momentum around in their favor. Instead, the Clippers kept their momentum, and followed that play up with three consecutive Nick Young three-pointers—all of which were assisted by Paul—which cut the lead to three.

Paul showed his singular genius yet again on the final Young three-pointer.

Down six, with under two minutes remaining, the Clippers had a fast break opportunity. The basketball was in Paul's hands. He had Griffin, dunk master and the best lob finisher in the game sprinting hard to the basket against a smaller defender looking for the alley-oop. Filling the other lane was Young, who was sauntering over to the same corner he had just drilled a second straight three from.

Paul processed all of this information in less than two seconds while dribbling full speed down the court. He deciphered the code and decided to bypass the obvious lob to Griffin—let's face it, everyone thought it was coming when they saw Blake making a beeline for the hoop—and instead fed the hot hand in the corner.

Paul's decision was rewarded with a third consecutive Young triple, making it a one-possession game (instead of still being two possessions had they converted the alley-oop) and silencing the Memphis crowd.

Finally, on the team's final possession, Paul took matters into his own hands. He drew a foul and stepped up to the line, calmly sinking the game-winning free throws with under 24 seconds to play.

Nobody, I repeat, nobody in the entire league could have made all that happen the way Paul did. It just goes to show how money CP3 is in the clutch.