Chris Paul listed as ‘questionable’ for Game 7, coach says

For just a while, it seemed like maybe, just maybe, we were headed for the unthinkable.

With Game 7 set for Monday at Toyota Center, Paul was listed as questionable by Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, who described the rehab process as going good on Sunday. Although he presumably had a strong desire to check in, Paul did his best to stay engaged and supportive.

There’s no way of knowing Paul’s status for game 7 until he tests out the hamstring, and D’Antoni said the team will reevaluate Paul on Monday morning and probably Monday afternoon as well.

“Obviously we want to have him”, Rockets forward PJ Tucker said. “When we do that, and we rotate, and we help each other we’re the best defensive team in the league”. But the number of ridiculous calls going for the home team, particularly in the third quarter when the game began to get out of hand, was pretty remarkable. Throw in some awful defensive communication errors by the Warriors, and the Rockets were raining threes in the first half – 11-of-22, with Gordon going 4-of-4. They opened with an 11-0 run to spark a dominant second half that made National Basketball Association history. In three games in Houston, Durant is averaging 34.7 points on 49.3% shooting from the field and 47.4% from beyond the arc.

He came through with the defending champions’ season on the line in another do-or-die Game 6, just as he did two years ago at Oklahoma City.

Paul had averaged 21.1 points and 5.8 assists in the playoffs, 19.8 points and 4.6 asist in the series against the Warriors, helping to drive the Rockets to their wins in Games 4 and 5. Houston was up 17 in the first and 10 at the half. Let’s just get that out there. Victor advances to the NBA Finals. The Warriors are one of the best third quarter teams in the National Basketball Association and they came out from a 10-point halftime deficit and turned it into a 7-point advantage. “It’s an opportunity, though, an opportunity that we all are excited to be a part of”.

It is probable that Paul wouldn’t be 100 percent in time for the finals even if he rested for Game 7. If the Warriors play as they should, moving the ball while avoiding turnovers offensively and making the kind of sound defensive plays they made in the final three quarters of Game 6, as opposed to the disaster they were defensively in the first, they should win this game going away. It will be rocking, and H-town will be fired up.