With all the talk surrounding Paul George facing his former team in the Oklahoma City Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari returning to Los Angeles, it got almost got lost that Chris Paul was going up against his former franchise too.
And Paul showed out. He led the Thunder with 22 points hitting a pair of free throws with 31.5 seconds remaining that nearly gave Oklahoma City the win.
Paul spent six years with the Clippers between 2011 and 2017. The ‘Lob City’ era as it was known, didn’t bring home an NBA Championship, but it did produce “five straight seasons of 50 or more wins, including a franchise-record 57 wins during the 2013-2014 season”, as noted by Clutch Points.
Doc Rivers was Paul’s coach then. He’s still the Clippers coach now. And on Monday night, he gave CP3, along with his teammates during the Lob City era, credit for building the foundation upon which the team is now built.
“It was great,” replied Rivers on Paul’s time in L.A. “Obviously … None of us won a title, but him, Blake, DJ started this franchise in a lot of ways. Or restarted it. They started a tradition of winning. The next step is being THE winner, but there shouldn’t be a negative at all in that.”
According to Tomer Azarly, Paul’s memories weren’t quite as rose-colored. But Paul still has good things to say about the years he spent in L.A.
“Oh, that’s a long, long, long, long story, you know what I mean,” Paul said with a smile. “But it was a good time. I stay in contact with them guys. Everybody’s on different paths now, but it was a fun time.”
Paul and the Thunder will face the Clippers three more times during the regular season, the next game coming on Sunday, Dec. 22, and it will be broadcast on NBATV.
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