Kyrie Irving played a fantastic game to lead the Cavaliers to a win over the Clippers Monday — 24 points, 10 assists and he had the dagger three at the end (when for some reason DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe both backed off him and gave him a clean look with the game on the line).
But Chris Paul wanted to see more out of him — he wanted to see his defense.
Cavs coach Byron Scott, as he often does with the opposing team’s best perimeter player, cross matched and put Alonzo Gee on Paul. And Paul told him not to, reports Jason Lloyd of the Plain Dealer (on Sulia):
Apparently at some point during Monday’s Cavs win over the Clippers, Paul jogged by Scott and told him “take him off me” and wanted Kyrie Irving to defend him instead.
“Why you got him guarding me? Let the young fella guard me,” Paul told Scott. “I said, ‘Young fella has guarded you. He said, ‘Well you threw me in the fire, made me guard all those guys.’”
Scott coached Paul, of course, when Paul was just breaking into the league in New Orleans.
CP3 had 17 points and 9 dimes for the Clippers. And he was not the reason the Clippers lost that game. But Irving was the reason the Cavs won.