Welcome back basketball fans. First and foremost, happy
birthday to Chris Paul. After beating the Warriors in game 7 Saturday night,
CP3 and the Clippers smacked the Thunder, in Oklahoma City by a final score of
122-105 to take a commanding 1-0 series lead in the conference semifinals.
Paul, on the eve of his 29th birthday, led the Clipps with 32
points, including 8 three balls, falling one short of the playoff record. Truly
a great game from Paul, and he’s been playing great all around. CP’s partner in
crime, Blake Griffin also added 23 points in the victory. Prior to this Western
Conference match up, the Pacers hosted the Wizards. NBA Sophomore Bradley Beal
had an excellent game, as did Trevor Ariza who scored 17 points and was 5 for 5
from downtown in the first half alone. Beal finished the night with 25 points
and 7 assists. Beal has been on fire since the start of the playoffs, and
thanks to the red hot Wizards, the Pacers could find themselves upset in the
series. Washington would go on to win the game 102-96. Now for a quick rant on
Roy Hibbert. What a joke. He’s been god awful since the start of the playoffs,
and just as it began to look like the Pacers got some momentum with their game
7 win, we quickly found out that they in fact didn’t, as the 7’4 center scored
0 points, had 0 rebounds, and 5 fouls in just 18 minutes. If they lose this
series, he’s a big part to blame, and he’ll likely be looking for a new home
this summer. Next line of business, today, Kevin Durant received the MVP award
for the first time in his career. The scoring champion became the first member
of that category to win the MVP since Allen Iverson in 2001. This was being
called the closest MVP race in the last decade, between LeBron and Durant, and
no one really had a clear winner in mind, however, the Slim Reaper received 119
of 125 first place votes. James received the other 6. Blake Griffin finished 3rd,
Joakim 4th, then James Harden, Stephen Curry and Chris Paul rounded
out the top 7. Tonight, the Heat face off against the Nets of Brooklyn. The
Nets beat the Heat 4-0 in the season series. It should get very interesting.
After that, the 1 seed Spurs take on the Portland Trailblazers. I’m really
looking forward to that series. Young stars in Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge
will take on two veteran stars in Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. The Spurs could
find themselves in yet another 7 game series.
Anyways,
I wanted to get into a little bit of a slight argument over the league’s best
point guards, as it seems to be the most star-studded position in the league. What
makes a great point guard? Obviously you want a guy who can pass, shoot, and
lead, but what else contributes, and what categories weigh where? First of all
you’ve got scoring point guards; guys who look to shoot before pass, and guys
that do a pretty good job at it. Guys like Curry, Westbrook, Parker, Lillard.
But then break that down. Do you want a shooter or a guy who can drive? Curry
is the best shooter of the group, but Westbrook is one of the best dunkers in
the game. And then think about pass first guards, guys like Paul, Lowery,
Rondo. They’ve got to be taken into consideration. In my personal opinion,
Chris Paul is the best all-around point guard in the league. He’s the one guy
that scores great, passes great, plays great defense, rebounds, and he’s the
best leader in the group. And it just so happens to be his birthday. There ya
have it.
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