Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets picked up a 121-112 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers last night behind Paul's 37 points on 29 shot attempts. One of those attempts, a layup in the final seconds when the victory was well in hand, rubbed Damian Lillard the wrong way.
Lillard quickly confronted Paul about his decision to tack on an extra two points rather than running out the clock, and he spoke about what was said after the game.
According to Joe Freeman of the Oregonian, Lillard said,
"I just asked him, I said, 'What did you get out of that?' He said, 'Y'all wasn't guarding.' But we got back. There was two guys back. We got back. He was sprinting the court to get the layup and CJ [McCollum] was chasing him. I just felt like in that situation, if you've got to do that to go get the layup, what's the point of it?"
"I think as far as sportsmanship goes and respect, if the roles were reversed, I don't think they would like it. They had two guys up the floor. I think [Shabazz Napier] ran back, I ran back for that reason ... we get two guys back and he pretty much sprinted down the court to get the layup. CJ was chasing him. At that point, you just wonder, like, what is that going to do for you? What was you trying to get right there? And that's what I asked him."
Interestingly enough, CP3's layup with 12 seconds left boosted Houston's lead from 7 to 9 which didn't make any difference in the outcome of the game but certainly impacted the Las Vegas Sportsbooks. The Rockets were 7-point favorites last night, so the garbage time layup shifted from a 'push' to an outright win for Houston backers.
