Don’t blame Chris Paul for this Clippers playoff collapse

When Joe Johnson put the Jazz up by five after hitting a floater with a little more than a minute left in the fourth quarter, the Clippers called a timeout. As everyone walked back to their respective huddles, Chris Paul threw a mini tantrum. He spiked the ball, punched the air, and stomped his feet while yelling at his players.

And he had every right to do so.

Other than one J.J. Redick layup, Paul was the only Clipper to score from the field in the last six minutes of the game. Anyone would be mad about that.

Paul’s almost-heroics actually started with a defensive play on a fast break with five-and-a-half minutes left. One on two, he managed to spook George Hill by taking a step toward him. When Hill tried to bounce the ball to his teammate, Paul swiped it as if it was meant for him.

Then Paul hit a jump shot. Then a floater while drawing the foul against Hill. He made another layup soon after, followed by a three-point shot that brought the Clippers within one with three minutes left.

Paul tried getting his teammates involved from there. He drove and kicked it out to Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who missed. Paul then created for Jamal Crawford, who missed his three as well. Paul tried again to use his teammates and passed it to Griffin for a wide-open three. He also missed.

So with the Clippers down two with 18 seconds left, Paul took matters into his own hands again. He dribbled, dribbled, dribbled, looked for an open teammate, and then dribbled around again until he was able to get into the paint and hit a floating, off-balance bank shot to tie the game.

Then Iso Joe won it for the Jazz with a buzzer-beater:

Paul can be criticized for not aggressively trying to score earlier in the game. When he gets going, there aren’t many opposing guards or teams that can contain him.

But that’s being unfair. With Rudy Gobert out with an injury, there’s no excuse for Paul’s teammates letting him down late. Paul has Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Crawford, Redick, and so on. He has scorers, all-stars, and bench legends. He has people who can create their own shots and ones who should be able to finish when he creates for them.

Paul tried, again and again, to get everyone else involved. He created sparkling opportunities for them, yet none responded. None seemed to care that they were losing to a Jazz team without its best player. The Clippers were on the verge of being embarrassed, and only Paul seemed aware of the seriousness of the situation.

He was stomping mad and his teammates walked away as if he was the village madman, screaming and flailing for some mystical reason instead of because they weren’t helping him.

The cliche is that leaders lead by example, but a leader’s true power comes from the authority that his subordinates grant him. There’s not much Chris Paul can do when he scores and scores, yet no one responds to his example. There’s not much that he can do when he forces turnovers even against bigger opponents, and his teammates turn around and give up easy buckets. There’s not much that he can do when he creates and his teammates miss great opportunities.

An individual can have an outsized influence on the outcome of each basketball game, but at the end of the day, it’s still an individual in a team sport. Paul’s tantrum is a great picture of what happens when that reality sets in. It’s what happens when someone tries his hardest to lead his team to victory but realizes the true limitations of a lone individual in a team sport when everyone else refuses to show up. Again.

All he could do was punch and kick out in frustration.

Chris Paul can be admonished for many playoff performances, but in this one game, when his team needed him the most, he stepped up. The only problem was that he was the only one who cared to try.