It took Chris Paul and his Los Angeles Clippers everything to beat the San Antonio Spurs.
The Clippers are moving on in the NBA playoffs, thanks to Paul's miraculous, last-second, Game 7-winning shot to eliminate the defending champions. Playing on an injured hamstring, which could keep him out of Monday's Game 1 against the Houston Rockets, Paul was pure, raw emotion Saturday night.
"I can't believe this was the first round," Paul said of the seven-game slugfest versus the Spurs. "But we're not done now."
Paul had a sleepless night before Game 7, according to ESPN's Arash Markazi. Then he strained his left hamstring late in the first quarter Saturday, and was left with tears in his eyes on the bench. After playing 82 games for the first time in his career - the most since he played 80 in 2010-11 - Paul's body was betraying him in not only the biggest game of the season, but arguably the biggest of his life.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old said:
There was a lot of things going through my head. You think about all season long, I think about Blake (Griffin), D.J. (DeAndre Jordan), a lot of guys on our team, we do everything we can to prepare for a game. You get your rest, you train, you work out, you eat right, try to take care of your body, and I was just overcome with emotion because I was frustrated, because I was like, "All this time, all season long, and then Game 7 my body is going to let me down." That's what it was all about right there.
Paul came back, of course, limping, and cemented his Point God legacy as one of the greatest backcourt generals of his generation, thanks to a shot that hadn't fallen all year for him.
You know, it's funny, it's crazy. When we finished walk-through today, when the team broke down, Doc called me and Blake over, and we talked about it. We talked about if we get down into a last-second shot what we wanted to do. We've been in that situation a lot of times already this year, and most of the time I hadn't made it, to tell you the truth. We talked about it, and finally it worked when we needed it.
Life's all about timing, and after the shot went in and the dust settled, there was nothing left for Paul to do but cry. He was overcome with emotion as he hugged Tim Duncan, who became his mentor when Paul broke into the league. The magnitude of what the Clippers had accomplished - the Clippers, who couldn't win the big game - settled in immediately.
You know, those guys right there are legends. Seriously, from Pop (Gregg Popovich) to Tim to Tony (Parker) to Manu (Ginobili). Like we've been saying all series, they're not going to beat themselves. Down the stretch our team has a thing that we say, what Doc said, "Don't let go of the rope." At any time we could have let go of the rope and just thought, it's these guys, we fought hard and we could have just conceded, but we kept fighting and guys made plays in order to win.
Paul wasn't the only one crying. His teammate J.J. Redick knew what he'd witnessed: history.
I’m an emotional guy and I was crying with Chris. This just adds to his legend. Twenty years from now I’ll be talking about this series and this game and that little guy and what heart he has.
On to the second round. Only 12 more wins to go.
