When a journalist asks him news from Stephon Castle, who took a hit in the second half against the Knicks before not playing in the fourth quarter, the response from Chris Paul fuses: “ I have no idea, I don't pay attention to any of this, seriously. »
Not that “CP3” doesn’t care about the state of health of his young partner, but his priority is elsewhere: “ Tre Jones (editor’s note: who provided a good relay in this last quarter) was playing. That's the advantage of having a team like ours, we have so much depth. And I know that you do your job of analyzing whether a player is injured or not. For us, the only thing that matters is finding a way to win these close games. »
His Spurs came close to doing so in New York on Wednesday night. After a winning basket from the veteran leader 40 seconds from time, the visitors were only three points behind. But the score will no longer change thereafter, due to a last New York possession extended by Josh Hart's offensive rebounds.
“ For us, the next step is to win these games “, repeats Chris Paul, adding: “ We have to get to that point where all this “young people stuff” has to go away. We are professionals like the others and you have to have guts and will in this league to find the means to win these matches, especially away from home when you are the only ones cheering for each other. »
A “road trip” to finish
A way for him to note that the Spurs, who are aiming for the playoffs, no longer want to highlight their youth to explain this or that poor performance. Because for the 39-year-old, this kind of contested match, in the context of the Christmas match, moreover at Madison Square Garden, “ builds character “.
“ Like Chris said, we're only young for so long and this stuff needs to go. It's time to win games “, also demands Tre Jones. Before this meeting, the Spurs had a good record of 3 wins for 1 loss when the match was played by 3 points or less.
On the other hand, the Texans, who now have a balanced record (15v-15d), still have a lot of difficulty evolving far from their bases: 4 victories and 7 defeats.
“ We still have two matches to play in this trip (editor’s note: in Brooklyn on Friday and in Minnesota on Sunday) and we must make sure to approach them with the necessary determination », Finishes Chris Paul.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Victor Wembanyama | 25 | 32.9 | 48.0 | 35.7 | 88.2 | 1.9 | 8.3 | 10.2 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 1.1 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 25.4 |
| Devin Vassell | 15 | 26.7 | 46.8 | 38.8 | 82.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 15.7 |
| Jeremy Sochan | 17 | 29.3 | 54.3 | 26.7 | 72.6 | 2.8 | 5.5 | 8.4 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 15.1 |
| Julian Champagnie | 30 | 29.2 | 43.0 | 36.2 | 90.0 | 0.8 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 12.4 |
| Keldon Johnson | 27 | 24.9 | 44.8 | 27.7 | 76.1 | 1.1 | 3.9 | 5.0 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 11.8 |
| Stephon Castle | 29 | 25.9 | 38.6 | 26.5 | 72.8 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 11.4 |
| Harrison Barnes | 30 | 27.7 | 46.8 | 40.8 | 78.8 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.9 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 10.3 |
| Chris Paul | 30 | 28.8 | 43.0 | 37.2 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 8.3 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 9.8 |
| Zach Collins | 24 | 14.2 | 47.6 | 33.3 | 87.5 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 3.3 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 5.8 |
| Malaki Branham | 21 | 12.1 | 43.6 | 38.6 | 85.0 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 5.8 |
| Charles Bassey | 20 | 10.9 | 57.3 | 0.0 | 56.5 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 4.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 20 | 9.2 | 53.6 | 43.6 | 73.3 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 4.4 |
| Blake Wesley | 22 | 11.4 | 45.3 | 20.0 | 71.4 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 4.0 |
| Tre Jones | 12 | 16.9 | 41.0 | 23.1 | 73.3 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 3.9 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
| David Duke | 1 | 8.2 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Sidy Cissoko | 12 | 3.0 | 45.5 | 60.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| Riley Minix | 1 | 6.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Harrison Ingram | 1 | 6.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
