The Warriors need Chris Paul to captain this midseason rebound

This late stage of Chris Paul’s career on the Golden State Warriors has been a showcase of contrasting expectations. While he is no longer supposed to be the best point guard, let alone the best player, on the floor, he still remains one of the most important cogs in the Dubs’ machine — in perhaps the most important moment of this season.

No game thus far has provided a better example of this than Tuesday’s gutsy 132-126 overtime win against the Boston Celtics. Paul, who came off the bench as he has done this year for the first time in his 19-season NBA career, was statistically overshadowed by the other guards on both the Warriors and the Celtics (the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms). Even after an injury to standout Dubs rookie Brandin Podziemski gave Paul starter-caliber minutes, he couldn’t keep up with the scoring outputs of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson or Boston’s Derrick White.

But Paul didn’t become arguably the greatest point guard this century by accident. Decades of basketball experience and knowledge can always create opportunities to overcome the shortcomings that come with aging. Paul understands that better than anyone, and he knows exactly when to deploy his extensive basketball IQ to maximize his team’s chances for success.

Early in the fourth quarter, for instance, Curry, the lone bright spot in an otherwise troubling Warriors season, was in a precarious on-court position: He had picked up five fouls. After a defensive three-second rule violation briefly thwarted a Celtics attempt to get the Dubs’ best player to foul out, Paul called Moses Moody, Andrew Wiggins and rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis in for a huddle and reprimanded them for not rotating over to help Curry. Curry avoided that sixth foul and finished out the game.

A couple plays prior, the 38-year-old was tasked with guarding Jayson Tatum, a 25-year-old MVP candidate whose career began when Paul was already entering his 13th season. The phrase “old man strength” comes to mind watching Tatum, who is listed as 8 inches taller than Paul, try to back down the veteran guard to no avail.

Paul has personal experience guarding Tatum in high-stress situations. While on the Thunder back in 2020, Paul demanded to guard the Celtics forward during a late-game possession. Paul’s effort got Oklahoma City the win. Back then, he cited his private workouts with Tatum as the key to his success. After Tuesday’s win, he was more retrospective.

“I done played defense a long time, a long time,” Paul said.

Paul has also been one of the best facilitators in basketball for a long time. The most important play of Tuesday’s game — a game-sealing three from Curry — doesn’t happen if Paul doesn’t quickly recover a loose ball first and make a split-second decision to fire a laser pass through a tight window against reigning NBA First-Team All-Defense member Jrue Holiday. After the game, Curry told reporters that he didn’t even see Paul, which shows just how difficult the angle of that pass was.

Curry also referred to Paul as a “master,” specifically in regards to the 38-year-old’s 12 assists and zero turnovers in the game. There’s no exaggeration there. Throughout his career, Paul has finished 58 games with at least 10 assists and no turnovers, a number that no player in NBA history is close to (Mike Conley Jr. of the Minnesota Timberwolves is the closest active player, with 14 such games). It’s an impressive feat that will only become more Herculean as Paul continues to play through his late 30s, yet it’s the kind of effort that the Dubs need now more than ever. 

For just the second time this season, Golden State has won more than two games in a row. Their three-game winning streak could extend for at least a couple more games, too, with the lowly Washington Wizards and Portland Trail Blazers up next. A matchup against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets on Christmas seems likely to snap any winning streak, but still, sustained success like this could be an important turning point in a struggle-filled season for the Dubs.

Typically, the responsibility to power Golden State through tough stretches would mostly fall on Curry. If no big game materialized from him, then that was it; in recent years there really hasn’t been any back-up plan. Now, the Warriors have something better than just a failsafe for a slow night from their star player: They have a leader. Even if he’s not always able to pick up the offensive slack himself, Paul has shown that he’s able to guide the rest of the team into making the right choices at the right time.

Paul was always going to be an impactful pickup when the Dubs acquired him this offseason. What the Warriors probably didn’t expect was just how badly they’d need his leadership skills by December to save their season. It’s a lot to ask of a 38-year-old, even if he’s a future Hall of Famer. But to quote Paul: He’s been doing this a long time. He can probably do it a little bit longer.