Chris Paul Outplays Stephen Curry in Point-Guard Duel

Stephen Curry and Chris Paul put on a spectacular one-on-one show Thursday in the Staple Center that has some basketball fans calling for a Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors playoff series.

 

Can we just go ahead and pencil in a Clippers-Warriors playoff series? Please?

— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) November 1, 2013

Paul and Curry engaged in a thrilling point-guard duel, with Paul dominating both on the stat sheet and on the scoreboard. Paul had one of the most impressive performances of his career, tallying 42 points, 15 assists and six steals while leading the Clippers to a 126-115 victory. Keep in mind it’s only the second game of the season.

With Paul’s performance, he became the first player since 1973-1974 to put up 40 points, 15-plus assists and five-plus steals in a single game. He shot 12-for-20 and 16-for-17 from the free-throw line. Paul was so out of his head that he even dunked the ball on a fastbreak.

Paul ultimately outplayed Curry but Curry had a pretty amazing game himself, scoring 38 points on 9-for-14 shooting and 9 assists. Curry’s problem was the 11 turnovers that were just careless errors and mental mistakes. Paul does deserve some credit, his hounding defense caused Curry to make uncomfortable decisions.

Blake Griffin added 23-point and 10-rebounds. DeAndre Jordan snatched 17 rebounds while J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford both poured in 17 points.

For the Warriors, every single starter scored in double figures. David Lee had 22 points and Andre Iguodala dropped 14 points and 11 assists.