Much of the tenacity and grit the OKC Thunder have played with through the initial 10 games of the schedule could be credited to their floor leader Chris Paul.
This was arguably his worst outing of the year as he struggled from the floor shooting 2 of 7 from the field, 0 of 2 from deep and uncharacteristically turned the ball over three times.
In spite of this, CP3 still did his best to defend and contribute in other ways such as his eight assists, five rebounds, and three steals. The point is he dished half of the team’s assists in the match and was responsible for a third of the club’s nine steals.
Even in a bad loss, Paul showed his young teammates how they should conduct themselves as a pro by the other things you bring to the floor when your shot isn’t falling.
The Pacers are a far better team than their early record displayed. With tonight’s victory Indiana has won seven of their last eight games with the lone loss coming in overtime.
They are a solid defensive club and it was clear the game plan was to cut off Paul’s passing lanes and make shots difficult for Danilo Gallinari and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
That game plan was successful as SGA shot 3 of 11 with only his performance versus the Blazers resulting in a worse shooting night (3 of 13). In addition, his effort was there defensively but it was a tough assignment and perhaps Shai more than anyone missed the presence (and familiarity) of having Ferguson in the starting rotation.
Like Chris Paul, he didn’t’ allow his off shooting night to take away from the other aspects of his game getting to the line four times, grabbing six rebounds half of which were on the offensive glass, adding a steal but had four uncharacteristic turnovers.
Not his best night — but as a sophomore and being the focus of game plans he’ll learn from this outing.