Unfair but True: Chris Paul Needs Game 7 Win to Salvage Playoff Legacy
Chris Paul needs a Game 7 victory over the Houston Rockets to slay the narrative about his postseason failings once and for all.
Playoff storylines have been unkind to Paul over the last decade solely because he has yet to earn a Western Conference Finals bid. They're objectively unfair in their interpretation of his career, but still relevant, subjectively viewed as either fabricated fodder or licit fact.
Yet, even with public opinion split to some degree, there is no whitewashing the importance of Sunday's Game 7 between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Rockets. Both teams are playing for a conference finals appearance; Paul himself is playing for that, as well as the chance to rewrite his postseason legacy for good.
It is without hesitation that we must acknowledge he shouldn't be participating in this Game 7 at all.
The Clippers jumped out to a 3-1 series lead over the Rockets, an overpowering advantage that was neutralized by losses in Games 5 and 6, the latter of which was especially disappointing.
Not only did the Clippers lead by as many as 19 points in Game 6, but they entered the fourth quarter with a 13-point cushion against an ebbing Rockets squad that wound up sitting James Harden for the entirety of the final frame.
Somehow, the Clippers loosened their chokehold. They allowed Josh Smith—yes, him—to run rampant and were outscored 40-15 in the quarter, forfeiting a second opportunity to punch their Western Conference Finals ticket.
Teams that secure 3-1 leads in best-of-seven second-round series do, in fact, advance more than 94 percent of the time, according to WhoWins.com. But that comes as little comfort now, with the series knotted up and a game in hostile territory on the horizon.
As CBS Sports' Matt Moore underscored on the heels of Game 6:
"Now, after coming back from being down 3-2 to San Antonio in an elimination game on the road to win in seven games, the Clippers, short-handed in terms of depth and worn out from long minutes and mental exhaustion, have to go on the road and win their second Game 7 in 14 games. All because they couldn't hold a 19-point lead at home.
It doesn't get any more Clippers than that.
"
On a larger scale, Paul shouldn't be up against these stakes at all, epic second-round collapse or not. He was thought to have slain his playoff demons in the first round, after upending the reigning champion San Antonio Spurs in a seven-game set for the ages.
That series, including its Game 7, should be enough.
Paul played through a hamstring injury that sidelined him for the first two games of Los Angeles' meeting with Houston. He made big shot after big shot and huge play after huge play, eventually dispatching the Spurs by his own hand, in the faces of Tim Duncan and Danny Green.
"I thought about our team and all the things we've been through," Paul said afterward, per SI.com's Ben Golliver. "I know that if it was any other guy on our team in a situation like this, they couldn't have laid down. I just tried to find a way."
In the end, he found a way, not just to win Game 7 and advance into the second round, but to, in theory, reinvent his playoff image.
"The Los Angeles Times dubbed it the 'Kiss of Life,' and that's about perfect," SB Nation's Tom Ziller wrote of Paul's shot. "How many lifelong basketball fans—in Los Angeles, in southern Texas, across the world—were born on Saturday? And while CP3 has been writing his story for 29 years, Saturday night gave life to his legend."
That last part remains important to Paul's story. His heroics against San Antonio were neither isolated nor out of character. He's been the shining example of preeminent point guard play for most of his career, and his postseason numbers are downright absurd.
Paul is averaging 20.8 points, 9.5 assists and 2.2 steals through 64 playoff contests. He's the only player to sustain those benchmarks.
Among the 257 players to log at least 2,000 minutes of postseason action, he ranks fifth in player efficiency rating (25.2). Those in front of him read like a who's who of playoff superheroes and have each won at least two NBA titles: Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
Most impressively, Paul leads all players who have fewer than 70 playoff tilts to their name in win shares, and it's not even slightly close. He represents 10.2 postseason victories; Hall of Famer Bob Lanier is in second place with 8.6.
This doesn't do it for everyone. Some only see true value in what he does if it's accompanied by the deep postseason runs Paul has yet to make.
Three of his seven playoff jaunts have ended in the first round. He has never made it past the Western Conference semifinals—not even with the Clippers and their monstrously talented core of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and himself.
His postseason record to this point is 28-36 and portrays a losing cycle unbefitting an all-time great.
Even Carmelo Anthony, the most vilified superstar of this generation, has earned a conference finals berth. And he did it on a 2008-09 Denver Nuggets team that didn't employ as much star power as Paul's Clippers do now.
They had talent, sure. More depth, too. But a prime Nene, post-prime Kenyon Martin, 32-year-old Chauncey Billups and vintage J.R. Smith don't compare to Griffin and Jordan, two stars at the height of their careers.
There's something, then, to the collective shortcomings of Paul's teams. They shouldn't actually matter when a single conference finals bid has failed to grant a player like Anthony respite from unremitting criticism.
At the same time, Paul is better, held to a higher standard than not just Anthony but nearly everyone else in the league. So, there is a gaping void in his legacy—if only because we acknowledge its existence, even when it's not our intent to perpetuate the seemingly irrational:
"Chris Paul was SO CLOSE TO KILLING THE NARRATIVE. SO CLOSE.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 15, 2015"
Whatever has happened before now, including Paul's memorable masterpiece against the Spurs, isn't enough for him to move on. Comments, however facetious or condemning, wouldn't have a place in his latest postseason push if it were enough.
A Western Conference Finals appearance has been repeatedly identified as his escape from this recurring theme, the one only alive because of the minority but alive nonetheless. That's what he needs. As his past performances prove, nothing less will suffice.
To get where he hasn't been yet, Paul needs another Game 7 victory.
Only then will he free himself from this exhaustive conversation, finally slaying that which shouldn't even exist.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com, unless otherwise cited.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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