Up three games to two, Paul strained his hamstring in the final minute of the Houston Rockets' Game 5 win and was forced to watch Game 6 and Game 7 from the sidelines. The 2018 Western Conference finals were Paul’s best chance at taking down Curry and the Warriors, as well as the biggest “What If” of his career. He changed the trajectory of the Clippers, and still, they never could get over the hump and consistently fell short. The two didn’t square off again in the playoffs for another four years, and Paul needed another team and another co-star to do so. He averaged 23.0 points, 8.4 assists and shot 38.6 percent on 3-pointers for the series. A 26-year-old Curry scored 33 points, dished nine assists and grabbed five rebounds in a Game 7 loss. They had won a franchise-record 57 regular-season games, yet needed seven games to stave off Curry and the Warriors in the first round. The young Warriors were in their second straight trip to the postseason, but Paul, Blake Griffin and the Los Angeles Clippers were supposed to be the next big thing. That also was the first time the two squared off in the NBA playoffs, and the last time Paul got the best of Curry on the big stage. When Curry began to ascend and prove he’s more than a baby-faced sniper from long range, Paul was in his seventh straight All-Star season the year Curry was named to his first in 2014. What Joseph plans to add to Warriors' star-studded backcourt But both are extremely competitive and show that side of their personality in different ways. Paul went home his first few offseasons, and Curry was one of the many players he groomed and guided. The Warriors superstar still remembers first seeing his counterpart on the AAU circuit 20 years ago. There might not even be a Steph Curry without a Chris Paul.īoth grew up as undersized North Carolina prospects, Paul serving as an example of what Curry could become. Curry stands on a mantle of his own, though, and the fandom frothed at the chance of Curry passing Paul in real time and in the history of the game. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green always will be connected to Curry, in their successes and in how Warriors fans protect the two. Such a move would be seen as sin even in fantasy land not too long ago. Paul long has been the Warriors’ own personal villain, making the trade that sent him to the Dubs from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jordan Poole the latest move in league history to be marred by its bizarreness. He himself wasn’t a villain, really in anybody’s eyes, until his three seasons in a Warriors jersey. There’s history there, and lots of it.ĭurant’s arrival made the Warriors the Super Villains of the NBA. Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder once were the Warriors' biggest threats out West, but aside from the 2016 conference finals where Golden State overcame a three-games-to-one deficit the season before Durant made the Bay Area his home, he never had a real rivalry with the Warriors. Steph Curry welcoming Chris Paul to the Warriors on Threads with three pictures of the two future Hall of Fame point guards Thursday night is a sentence that represents a whole new reality, in a handful of ways.
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