Chris Paul ended the first half of Game 4 against the Utah Jazz in the most Chris Paul fashion possible. With four seconds left in the quarter, Paul stole the ball and instead of pushing it up the court tried twice to draw fouls against Joe Ingles, who was in the vicinity.
Chris Paul ends the first half of Game 4 by obnoxiously trying to draw 2 fouls
Come on, dude.
Referees held their whistles both times, leaving Paul aimlessly throwing the ball towards the baseline as time expired and the Rockets yelling at the referees.
A few things:
- The first instance is a bad basketball play that nobody supports. Everyone needs to stop purposefully trying to get run over by defenders. It’s especially shitty when the offensive player basically initiates the contact with the defender behind him, and it should be called as an offensive foul every single time. Both those are hard plays to officiate, and I understand why referees sometimes get them wrong.
- I’ll mildly defend the second instance. Paul was stuck with nowhere to go, and it’s hard to tell how serious his attempt to get past Ingles was. Once contact happen, Paul clearly exaggerated it, but I’ve come to accept exaggerated contact as part of the NBA. I don’t think that’s some inherent sin in today’s league, anyway. Everyone does it.
- If Harden pushes it immediately, the Rockets might get at least one look at a three with time expiring. Four seconds isn’t a lot, but Paul’s antics ruined any chance at any sort of look.
- This ain’t just Paul. In fact, Ingles is a common flopper. Every team has perpetrators, so no one get on a high holy horse or anything.
I’m a huge Paul fan but this was him at his most obnoxious, to be sure.
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