Chris Paul reached the conference finals for the first time in his career, and he really carried the load in order to get there.
The Houston Rockets guard scored 41 points on 13 of 22 shooting, including 8-for-10 on three-pointers in his team’s 112-102 win over the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of their playoff series on Tuesday night. Paul seemed to know that it was on him to give the Rockets a little more than usual.
CP3 told TNT’s Kristen Ledlow in a postgame interview that star teammate James Harden was “under the weather” for the game.
That likely explains Harden’s off night — an 18-point performance, which marked his second-lowest point total of the postseason. Harden was just 7-for-22 from the field in 35 minutes and did not look like his usual self.
The Rockets now move on to the Western Conference finals where they will face the winner of the Warriors-Pelicans series. Houston had the best record in the regular season, but the Warriors are the defending champions and would be favored in a series.
