Self-anointed good guy Chris Paul has a history in the NBA of playing dirty and getting away with it, including in the Western Conference Semifinals when he kicked Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala in the knee in Game 5. But the Houston Rockets guard apparently has failed to connect some important dots, starting with the fact that his many punches to the nether regions of opposing players may gain him an edge on a single play, but don’t necessarily amount to game wins, let alone appearances in the NBA Finals let alone championship rings. Not satisfied with attempting to injure guys on the court, Paul took his underhanded tendencies off it prior to Game 6 by denying Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry practice time. According to Bleacher Report: On Saturday, Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic reported Curry’s manager, Eric Housen, booked the court time, but Paul found out about it, traveled to the Rockets’ home arena and took the floor for himself, even denying his Golden State counterpart’s offer to split the court in half. In this context, Curry’s scoreless first half makes a ton of sense. If nothing, NBA players are creatures of habit and disruption to their routine can, well, throw them off their game. Curry clearly wasn’t himself in the first half of last night’s contest against the Rockets. Paul, of course, probably thought he’d done something extra special by tossing chaos into Curry’s routine and limiting him to a scoreless first half; he probably expected the Rockets to get the win to force Game 7. But the joke was on the Rockets even before news of Paul’s dirty tactics was revealed: The game was tied at 57 at halftime, despite Kevin Durant missing the game with a calf strain, and despite Curry battling a finger injury and failing to bank a single first-half basket. Operating on the side of goodness, Curry dug deep — put the team on his back for a 33-point game, all scored in the second half, for the 118-113 victory and a ticket punched to the Western Conference Finals. While Paul was focused on unreal pettiness to win the game — the mark of a desperate man with obvious doubts his and his team’s knowledge, skills and abilities to get it done — Curry was thinking beyond himself, even after hearing chatter behind the scenes about Paul’s dirty dealings: Curry told reporters after the game: I’ve heard a lot of noise this series, for sure. I’ll just leave it at that. Whether it’s positive, negative, whatever the case is — I know what I’m capable of. It’s bigger than me, so I just don’t get caught up in that. The least we can do is come in here and get a win. Get some rest before the Western Conference Finals and give [Durant] the chance to get healthy and go chase another championship. It’s special. I know he’s back at home celebrating and can’t wait to get back and prepare for the next series. The Warriors will tip off against either the Portland Trail Blazers or Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals on Monday, May 14, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Chris Paul, presumably, will go back to making State Farm commercials and continue avoiding self-reflection.<doc-sep>Chris Paul kicked Steph Curry off court night before Game 6 showdown originally appeared on nbcsportsbayarea.com Programming note: Watch the pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30, streaming live on the MyTeams app. Chris Paul was fantastic in Game 6 of the Warriors-Rockets NBA playoff second-round series. The Rockets guard recorded 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting, with 11 rebounds and six assists. But it wasn't enough as Houston's season came to an end with a 118-113 loss. After the game, we learned an incredible story that certainly doesn't look good for CP3. Marcus Thompson of The Athletic has the details: On the eve of Friday's Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, (Steph) Curry wanted to get some shots up at the Toyota Center. The Warriors do-it-all manager Eric Housen booked the court, from 7 to 8 p.m., so Curry could work on his shot. Somehow, Rockets guard Chris Paul got wind. He decided to go to the Toyota Center to get shots up, nixing Curry's reservations. The Warriors' point guard offered to stick to half a court but Paul wasn't having it. Curry was kicked off the Toyota Center court. This is ... ... unbelievable. Does it get any pettier than this? And it's why Curry yelled "Kick me off the court again, boy!" as he celebrated the Game 6 victory with Draymond Green just outside the Warriors' locker room. Steph Curry will always be taken for granted and he will always be underrated https://t.co/AEQRsb60ti — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 Paul is an incredible basketball player and one of the best point guards of all time. But it's hard to watch him play because of all of his antics and flopping. Really glad they didn't call a foul on Steph Curry for this Chris Paul flop, but Curry has to make this layup pic.twitter.com/RL9FT9VrQ2 — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 This is how Chris Paul gets his points. He flops around when the Rockets are in the bonus. It's embarrassing pic.twitter.com/j8wEHufafB — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 Hahaha. Chris Paul flops and then points at one of the refs who didn't call a foul pic.twitter.com/GkcyWv5TaN — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 11, 2019 [RELATED: Klay, Lacob discuss special moment from late in Game 6 win] So on second thought, it's actually believable that Paul would have done something like kick Curry off the court the night before a game. Follow @DrewShiller on Twitter and Instagram<doc-sep>Chris Paul’s internal metronome has never abandoned him. Even as the league sped up around him, Paul managed to maintain his own pace, always willing to take that extra second to make the defense reveal its true hand. Whether he’s securing a two-for-one or bleeding the shot clock down and creating a quality look, no one has been better than CP3 at manipulating time. Now it’s finally catching up to him. There’s no nice way to say this about a future Hall of Fame player and one of the greatest point guards to ever live, but here it goes: Paul looks washed. How did we get here so quickly? Ending up alone on an island with Paul used to guarantee a slow death for whatever unlucky SOB was stuck there with him. Paul would rock mismatched defenders from heel to toe before moving off to the side and getting whatever shot he wanted, again and again. James Harden’s side-step jumper that spooked Utah into playing defense behind him? That was in Paul’s bag a decade ago. Paul’s isolation game, despite being centered on getting his defender off balance, worked only because of the threat he would blow by you. That threat has all but dissipated. The Warriors are happily forfeiting 1-5 switches to bait Paul into isolating against a big man and forcing the kind of contested midrange shots Houston once eradicated. On 44 isolation possessions this postseason, Paul is averaging 0.77 points per possession (PPP) and a 13.6 percent turnover frequency, the worst marks of anyone with at least 30 isolation possessions in the playoffs. (For reference, Harden is averaging 1.06 PPP in isolation, Steph Curry 1.31.) It’s been even worse when the game has tightened up late. Paul has consistently been a top scoring option in the clutch (score within five, less than five minutes to play), even if his teams’ repeated postseason failures would lend you to believe otherwise. Most of those playoff losses can be attributed to bad injury luck more than anything else, but there’s no excuse readily available this postseason. In 30 clutch minutes in the playoffs, Paul hasn’t scored a field goal (0-for-4) and has as many turnovers as assists (three). Paul’s struggles with the ball in his hands create a paradox for the Rockets, who face a must-win situation in Friday’s Game 6. They need someone who can spell Harden and create in isolation as well as spot up willingly and effectively around him. Paul hasn’t been able to fill either role—in addition to his iso woes, he hasn’t hit a single assisted 3-pointer in Houston’s second-round series against Golden State, a baffling statistic when you remember he’s playing alongside Harden, on a team that will attempt 50 3s a game without blinking. At 34 years old with a lengthy injury history and an alarming lack of burst, Paul is likely entering the Jason Kidd portion of his career, where he still provides lockdown defense but needs to play off someone else’s created advantage rather than force his own. Still, for a control freak who has already relented so much to his teammate, it’s understandably difficult for a player with a long history of torturing big men to just turn that part of his brain off when he sees Kevon Looney alone in space. If he can’t get unstuck and this is a glimpse into the future, the outlook is awfully bleak: Paul is owed $124 million over the next three seasons at the league’s most oversaturated position, and it’s unclear whether Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta will dip into the luxury tax. It’s hard to envision a scenario where Paul doesn’t help his team on the floor—he’s too good defensively—but that doesn’t prohibit his contract from becoming a roadblock to Houston’s championship aspirations, either. After years of brilliant performances in meaningless regular-season games that time has washed away, it’s fitting that Paul will get one of his last chances at a legacy-defining moment while he still has enough sway to make it one. One year after Paul was forced to watch from the sidelines as the Warriors took the final two games of the Western Conference finals, the Rockets, though down 3-2, have a golden opportunity with Kevin Durant now slated to miss the rest of the series due to injury. The scene is perfectly set. His teammates have shown that they are going to give him the ball down the stretch, and Golden State will dare him to beat them. Paul has always relished the big moment. Now, more than ever before, he needs one.<doc-sep>Rockets development coach Irv Roland on Saturday disputed a report that Rockets guard Chris Paul booted Warriors star Stephen Curry off the court the night before the Rockets faced the Warriors in Game 6, saying there were no issues and that the two joked as Paul prepared to begin his usual workouts, adding that the entire exchange occurred a week earlier. The Athletic reported that Paul arrived at Toyota Center on Thursday only after he heard Curry was using the Toyota Center court for shooting drills on Thursday, and “kicked Curry off the Toyota Center court.” Roland, however, said they actually crossed paths on May 5, the night before Game 4, and that there were no issues with Curry’s time on the main floor, with Paul doing his usual lifting while Curry had the court before he and Rockets rookie Michael Frazier headed to the court for a workout. “I’ve been here three years and we go to shoot the night before games quite often,” Roland said. “Never in my three years has a player been on our main floor shooting the night before a game. When we saw him out there, I contacted our equipment manager (Tony Nila) because they’re the ones that coordinate shooting times. He told me ‘we gave him the court at 6:45.’ We asked him how long they had the court for. “When we finally went out there, Stephen cracked a joked with Chris. Chris said ‘let him shoot.’ It wasn’t like it was a confrontation. “Let him shoot. Let him finish what he’s doing.’ We didn’t kick him off the court. We didn’t even say anything. I wanted to know how long he was shooting because I had Chris with Michael Frazier and James Harden coming right after Chris. I wanted to know how long he was going to be before James left the house.” The exchange seemed amiable with Curry joking about Paul shooting without a shirt and Paul saying he has to show off the weight room work while he can. Roland said Paul never brought up how long Curry would shoot and that they had no issue with the timing, especially because the drills were so limited. “Nobody said anything to them,” Roland said. “It wasn’t like we were doing full-court drills or a whole team practice. Also, we wouldn’t do that just because there are nights we might need to go to Oracle and shoot. That’s why it’s coordinated in the first place.” According to the report in The Athletic, Curry referred to getting kicked off the court to teammate Draymond Green after the Warriors’ Game 6 win.<doc-sep>
After Steph Curry and the Warriors eliminated the Rockets in shocking fashion Friday night, an amazing story came to light. It came from The Athletic's Marcus Thompson, who tells amazing stories all the time. But this one, in fact, was an all-timer. From Thompson: On the night before Friday's Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, after arriving from the Bay Area, Curry wanted to get some shots up at Toyota Center. The Warriors' do-it-all manager, Eric Housen, booked the court from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. so Curry could work on his shot. Somehow, Rockets guard Chris Paul got wind. He decided to go to Toyota Center to get shots up, nixing Curry's reservations. The Warriors' point guard offered to stick to half a court, but Paul wasn't having it. Curry was kicked off the Toyota Center court. Is this incredible or what? I mean even for Chris Paul, who has an ocean of competitive pettiness swirling inside him, this is another level. Opposing players shoot in opposing gyms all the time. It's basically a time-honored NBA tradition, an absolute bare minimum display of professional hospitality. What Paul did was hilarious in one sense, a throwback to the Bill Laimbeer time of rivals actually hating one another rather than spending summers together frolicking on banana boats in the south of Spain. It was also dangerous. And man did it ever burn Paul and the Rockets. There are just some giants you don't wake up when they're in a basketball slumber, and Steph Curry is one of them. Dude was in the middle of the worst shooting stretch of his career. Sure, he had a little run at the end of Game 5, but all in all this guy was sleeping on the job. And Paul just walks up to him and pokes him with a pointy stick? Seriously? You thought it was a good idea to stoke the fire of one of the fieriest competitors in the world? It's true, too. Curry's competitiveness is legendary. Talk to anyone around the league and it's one of the first words that will come up about him. Competitor. This is a guy who has been internalizing disrespect and turning it into an Amazonian snake's venom from the time he was in high school. He was already motivated by all the people chirping about his struggles, saying he couldn't win without Kevin Durant and he's always been a postseason underachiever and blah blah blah. Dude was cooking hotter than a campfire, and Paul just willingly sprays gas on him? And don't think for a second that this is just some made-up media reach that this even bothered Curry, all in the name of a good story. Every slight bothers Curry. And he remembers every detail. Again from Thompson: Draymond Green stood outside the visiting locker room at the Toyota Center, greeting teammates as they came in. When Stephen Curry made his way through the crowd, he looked straight at Green — before they slapped hands and bumped chests — and screamed, "Kick me off the court again, boy!" And Green replied to Curry's taunt by screaming, "Kick him off! Kick him off!" You can hear it here: Yeah, Chris Paul done messed up. Curry went from zero halftime points to 33 second-half points, 21 in the fourth quarter, 16 in the final five minutes to add to his long list of playoff heroics, and in the end, the Warriors once again ripped out the Rockets' heart and fed it to them. And now Chris Paul will have the gym all to himself all summer long.