Portland 103, New Orleans 96
I don't know what's going on with Chris Paul(notes).
Portland should be the story here. There might not be a better story in this league right now. The Blazers have overcome everything and a half to be on pace for 47 wins as they enter the All-Star break. Fifty victories could really be on the horizon, and the emergence of LaMarcus Aldridge(notes) as a franchise-level stud (finally playing up to that potential) has been one of the real treats of 2010-11.
Usually Chris Paul, when he's healthy, is among those treats. But what started as a dominant stretch for three quarters, followed by a strange habit of taking fourth quarters off, has now stretched out for entire games at a time. And what was once an MVP candidate has now reduced himself (whether by attitude, ennui, bum knees or combination of all three) to be the sort of guy who puts up only eight points and nearly as many turnovers (four) as assists (five) in a close game against a team fighting for playoff seeding with Paul's Hornets.
Fourteen points and nine assists for Paul in the month of February. Not too bad, but not commensurate with his gifts. CP3 has hit just 17 of his last 54 shots, and that's spread out over five games. This isn't a man who should be taking fewer than 11 shots a night, regardless of NOLA's slow pace, and making just over three of those attempts on average. And it's not like he's tearing it up in the assist department, at just under eight a game.
Chris doesn't have many people to pass to, as the Hornets are either made up of -- looking past David West(notes), of course -- players who need the ball to score, or players who shouldn't have the ball at all. But this is where Paul would seem to want to take his exceedingly good scoring traits and put them to work. Instead, he's coasting. And it's not right. His fans and his team deserve better. I can understand the Hornets' swoon -- this was a limited rotation even with Emeka Okafor(notes) around -- but there's no excuse for this sort of play.
Portland will take it. Nate McMillan's team came through with 68 points combined in the first and fourth quarters, as Wesley Matthews(notes) and Aldridge combined for 58. Nearly 129 points per 100 possessions overall for PDX, a remarkable figure considering the Hornets may have been the NBA's best defensive team in the first month of the season.
