This is like when the Patriots are beating a team by 10 points, and throw a bomb TD very late in the fourth quarter, when they could just run the clock out with the victory formation.
With the game in hand, the Rockets’ Chris Paul hit a layup against the Trailblazers as the clock ran out, giving him a game-high 37 points, 11 assists, & seven rebounds en route to a 121-112 win.
Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard, who had a pretty solid night himself (29-8-5), admitted the Rockets were the better team that night but took issue with Paul’s late-game antics, & confronted him about it after the game:
Via, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian:
“I just asked him, I said, ‘What did you get out of that?’ He said, ‘Y’all wasn’t guarding.’ But we got back. There was two guys back. We got back. He was sprinting the court to get the layup and CJ [McCollum] was chasing him. I just felt like in that situation, if you’ve got to do that to go get the layup, what’s the point of it?”
“I think as far as sportsmanship goes and respect, if the roles were reversed, I don’t think they would like it. They had two guys up the floor. I think [Shabazz Napier] ran back, I ran back for that reason … we get two guys back and he pretty much sprinted down the court to get the layup. CJ was chasing him. At that point, you just wonder, like, what is that going to do for you? What was you trying to get right there? And that’s what I asked him.”
At the NBA level, it’s pretty common knowledge that teams will routinely dribble the ball out when the game is wrapped up, so it’s no surprise to hear the Blazers leader speak out against Chris Paul.
Just more fuel to an already lit-looking western conference playoff setup.
Flip the page for video of Lillard pressing Paul for the layup:
