Trail Blazers Must Find a Way to Contain Chris Paul, J.J. Redick to Save Season

LOS ANGELES — There are several important matchups to watch as the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers do battle in their first-round series. 

But nothing is under a harsher microscope than the star-powered backcourt clash, where Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have the never-envied task of defending Chris Paul and J.J. Redick. 

In a results-oriented business, they failed miserably in their 115-95 Game 1 loss. Paul finished with 28 points (on 19 shots) and 11 assists in 33 minutes, while Redick wiggled free for 17 points (on 12 shots) in 27 minutes. Behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, it’s hard to think of a backcourt more collaboratively devastating. 

Paul is a seemingly flawless floor general, the blood that pumps through the Clippers’ veins and keeps them alive when it looks time to count them out.

At 30 years old, he’s coming off a regular season in which he led the league in assist percentage for the fourth year in a row. He also recorded the second-highest usage rate of his career, finished with his highest points-per-game average since 2012 (19.5) and landed the No. 5 spot in the NBA in terms of personal efficiency rating.

It was a great year, in part because his partner in crime was the deadliest spot-up shooter in the league—a perfect route-runner who ignites L.A.’s offense by whirling around a maze of screens before stopping on a dime and introducing the ball to nylon over and over again. 

In an era when nothing is more valuable than the three-point shot, Redick just led the NBA in three-point percentage. With Paul feeding him ammunition, the Clippers are just about impossible to stop. During the regular season, their net rating was plus-13.0 in nearly 2000 minutes as a tandem.

And if Portland can’t slow these two down in Game 2, they’ll quickly perish as a smudge on L.A.’s windshield.

“[The Clippers] have so many ways that they can hurt you,” Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said before his team lost by 20 points in Game 1. “I think it starts with Chris Paul, and that’s difficult because you can’t really take him out of a game. You can’t double-team him because that just gives him an opportunity to make his teammates better. They have terrific outside shooting.”

Doubling Paul is not an option, and true to his word, Stotts and the Trail Blazers didn’t even try, despite the ridiculously difficult shots L.A.’s MVP candidate drained Sunday. 

Lillard was the victim more times than not—Paul went 8-of-10 and had 17 points with Lillard on him, per B/R Insights—but Portland’s best player still put up a fight. He battled in isolation and forced low-efficient attempts that happened to go in.

“As far as guarding CP, it was our same defense: We force guys off the three-point line, make them shoot mid-range pull-ups and floaters, and, you know, we live with the result,” Lillard said. “Unfortunately, that’s his game. He loves that area. We just contested a lot of those shots and his isolations, we were physical and we were right there. A player at his level, he’s going to make those shots sometimes, …

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