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NBA Star Power Index: Chris Paul likely won’t win MVP, but is there a more valuable player in the league?
Welcome back to NBA Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players getting the most buzz around the league. Inclusion on this list isn’t necessarily a good thing — it simply means you’re capturing the NBA world’s attention. This is also not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order. This column will run every week throughout the regular season.
The Phoenix Suns have lost two games since the start of January. That calculates to 20 wins in 22 games and the possibility of a 65-win season looks downright likely. We talk about what LeBron James is doing at his age, but Chris Paul has proved equally defiant of Father Time.
Paul, 36, leads the league in assists at 10.8 per game. He boasts as many 19-assist games in the past two weeks — two — as he’s had single-assist games in the past month. He served up 14 dimes in Phoenix’s win over the Clippers on Tuesday, and his season-long clutch-minute mastery continued. Paul broke a 90-90 tie with a 3-pointer just as the clock dipped under five minutes.
Next possession: Paul casually pulls two defenders with him as he crosses the paint to open up a backside lob to DeAndre Ayton, who was the recipient of nine Paul presents on Tuesday.
Next possession: Paul to Booker.
A little over a minute later Paul, going left, finished a delicate push-shot off the glass with his right. Then he sealed the game with 40 seconds left by luring Robert Covington, the short-corner defender, just a few steps in his direction with the threat of his step-back jumper, which left Mikal Bridges open in the corner for the coffin closer.
Paul isn’t going to win the MVP award, but I’m not sure there’s a more valuable player to his team in the league right now. Booker is the young star, but the identity of this team, the poise, the execution, the winning energy, is a direct reflection of Paul’s influence. He remains one of the most skilled players in the world, expertly versed in the nuances of space and pace. He is going to get where he wants to go, and in that certainty lies the openings Phoenix is constantly leveraging.
To state the obvious, Chris Paul isn’t even close done. In a way, it feels like he and the Suns are just getting started.
During his Philadelphia introductory press conference on Tuesday, Harden admitted that the Sixers were his preferred team when he forced his way out of Houston last January. It took him an extra year and another reputation-sullying sellout job to get there, but hey, he got his way. No more Nets for Harden.
On Tuesday, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer released a wide-ranging report detailing Harden’s final chapter in Brooklyn, in which the growing animosity between Harden and Durant was described by a source as a “cold war” that “made everyone miserable.”
Who knew Durant, or any teammate for that matter, would take issue with a disengaged star giving half effort and breaking off from the team to hit the clubs in Vegas and Houston before taking his own flight to rejoin the team in another city, showing up at halftime of games in which he wasn’t playing.
From Fischer:
Until the week of the deadline, Harden maintained his commitment to Brooklyn in conversations with Nets staffers, sources said. But he began distancing himself from the team with a similar pattern to how he forced a trade from the Rockets.
After posting an emphatic 37-point triple-double on 13-of-24 shooting at the San Antonio Spurs on Jan. 21, Harden left the team for Houston and a night of clubbing, B/R has learned. He rejoined the traveling party in Minnesota for a Jan. 23 game against the Timberwolves and scored just 13 points on 13 attempts.
Harden played against the Phoenix Suns in primetime Feb. 1, but that next night in Sacramento—which proved to be his final game in a Nets uniform—it became obvious to Brooklyn staffers that he was offering minimal effort, even less than he had in that subpar performance in Minnesota. He took just 11 shots and had more turnovers (six) than points (four).
When the Nets arrived in Utah for their fourth game of a five-game trip, members of the traveling party were openly discussing their desire to swap Harden for Simmons.
Harden didn’t arrive at the Jazz game until halftime, sources told B/R. When it concluded and Brooklyn continued with its planned itinerary to Denver, Harden flew to Las Vegas, sources said.
When asked to confirm the account, one person close to Harden chuckled before responding, “That sure sounds like James, doesn’t it?”
The short flight from Salt Lake City has made for frequent Vegas getaways for Harden dating back to his Rockets tenure, sources said. He would also stay behind following trips to Los Angeles and meet the team at its next destination.
By all accounts, Durant maintained that faith as long as he could. “Kevin always had a hope that this situation could get better,” one source close to Harden said.
That is until Harden finally voiced what he’d been telling confidants for some time. He wanted to be traded to Philadelphia. He arrived on the Nets bench well past tipoff for the Boston Celtics game that Tuesday. Harden left Brooklyn on Wednesday and retreated to his old stomping grounds in Houston once more. While Durant and management labored over the Nets’ impending conversations with the 76ers, Harden stepped into another night of clubbing.
“He knew [the trade] was gonna go down,” the source close to Harden said.
These retrospective reports always trickle out in the aftermath of dramatic divorces. This one isn’t surprising. Harden has shown he will do whatever he has to do to get his way, even at the expense of his teammates and the teams paying him tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. But hey, it’s fun for us. The Sixers are a real contender now and the Nets are way more interesting with Simmons. The Eastern Conference playoffs are going to be a thrill ride.
Doncic went berserk against the Clippers last Thursday, scoring a career-high 51 points to tie Dirk Nowitzki for the highest output in Mavericks history (Dirk needed overtime for his 51). Doncic exploded out of the starting block with 28 first-quarter points.
Two nights later, Doncic hung 45 on the same Clippers. The man ruthlessly tortures that franchise. Dallas has won five of its last six and sits at No. 5 in the West, three losses clear of the play-in tournament.
Giannis put 50 points and 14 rebounds, on 17-of-21 shooting, on the Pacers on Tuesday.
I’ll say that again. 50 points on 21 shots. Silly.
The Bucks are up to No. 3 in the East, just two games back of the No. 1 spot. They are 24-6 when Giannis, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday play together.
DeRozan just isn’t slowing down. The man has now scored at least 35 points on at least 50-percent shooting in six straight games. The last guy to do that was Wilt Chamberlain in 1963, and suffice it to say, Chamberlain wasn’t living on a diet of midrange jumpers.
DeRozan has kept the Bulls afloat as they’ve been without Lonzo Ball for the past month and Alex Caruso for the past three weeks, with a two-week Zach LaVine absence sprinkled in there. Chicago has played exactly .500 ball over their last 22 games but it built enough of a cushion early in the season to keep its place in the standings — tied with Miami for the No. 1 spot in the East.
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Panthers’ toughness becomes weakness as Golden Knights capitalize on undisciplined play
LAS VEGAS — The Florida Panthers are trying to be tough. The Vegas Golden Knights actually are.
The Stanley Cup finalists were opposites on Monday, and not because the Knights ventilated Conn Smythe Trophy candidate Sergei Bobrovsky in a decisive (and easy) 7-2 victory that gave Vegas a 2-0 series lead in the National Hockey League championship.
For all the overt and cosmetic displays of “toughness” by the Panthers, who revel in their reputation as shift-disturbers, it’s the steady, unbending Knights who appear through two lopsided wins to have the nerve and fortitude that reflect genuine toughness.
Discipline is toughness. Only one team has it.
The Panthers were so tough they were soft in Game 2. They took two silly penalties early that led to a deficit and displayed little actual resistance around their own net.
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It’s like they thought time and space might somehow repel Nicolas Roy when the Knight walked the puck out of the corner, untouched between retreating Panthers Carter Verhaeghe and Casey Fitzgerald, and beat Bobrovsky to make it 3-0 at 2:59 of the second period.
When Brett Howden skated unchecked on to Mark Stone’s pass and outwaited Bobrovsky to make it 4-0 at 7:10, the goalie who co-piloted the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final was hooked by Florida coach Paul Maurice after 13 shots.
The team’s other catalyst, Matthew Tkachuk, had more penalty minutes (22) than playing time (15:57) but did deliver the hit of the game late in the second period on Jack Eichel, who like the rest of the Golden Knights, was undeterred.
As the series moves across the continent to South Florida for Game 3 on Thursday, this final is not close. And it’s not going to be close unless the Panthers smarten up because the Golden Knights are too good and too disciplined to just invite them back into the series.
“Toughness, there’s probably a lot of things that go into the description of that,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s not about fighting. To me discipline is more of the mental toughness part of it, knowing that it’s easy to retaliate and get your sort of instant gratification. But to hold it in takes a lot more.
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“If you’re going to play a series and the temperature goes up, it’s just going to be required. I think every guy understands that. You’ve got to decide. That’s on the player and good for our guys, really good for our guys.”
Not so much for the Panthers.
Just 6:39 into the game, Florida winger Ryan Lomberg needlessly brought his stick up on Jonathan Marchessault. And 26 seconds after his cross-checking penalty began, Marchessault scored his ninth goal in nine games by lasering a wrist shot past Bobrovsky’s glove.
A few shifts later, Panther defenceman Brandon Montour took an even dumber penalty by elbowing Marchessault in the back of the head. The Knights didn’t score on that power play (but did soon after) and didn’t get a call when Aaron Ekblad cuffed William Karlsson at the first-period buzzer. Ekblad then ridiculously stuck his skate out towards another opponent on his way off the ice.
That’s not toughness. It’s silly.
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“It’s not a penalty preventing a goal or a scoring chance, right?” Cassidy said of Montour’s penalty. “So you want to take advantage of those. It’s all about creating some doubt, too, for them because they’ve been the story of the playoffs. So you want to put some doubt in their mind.”
Surely, it is there now.
“We’ve seen what they’ve done in the series before,” Roy said. “They play hard, but they also take penalties after the whistle. It was a big goal from Marchy there on the powerplay to make them pay, and we’re not going to retaliate. We’re going to stay disciplined.”
Is discipline part of being tough?
“Absolutely,” defenceman Alec Martinez, a Stanley Cup winner with the Los Angeles Kings, said after scoring the second Vegas goal. “You’ve got to be able to take a few hacks and whacks to be successful.
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“We know the kind of style that they play. They try to get under your skin and we know that we have to stay disciplined. The referees are aware of how they play, too. There’s a fine line between sticking up for yourself and sticking up for your teammates, but then also taking a few shots for the good of the team.”
Each team had four power plays, but Vegas took only one penalty when the game was still winnable for Florida. The Knights were 2-for-4 on the power play, the Panthers 0-for-4.
Marchessault and Howden each scored twice, and 12 Vegas skaters made it on to the score sheet. The Knights have 12 goals in two games from nine different scorers. Their goalie, journeyman Adin Hill, is also badly outplaying Bobrovsky the same way he did Dallas netminder Jake Oettinger in the conference final.
“Every single game it’s going to be different players to step up,” Vegas winger Ivan Barbashev said. “This is probably why we’ve been having success; there’s always somebody else who’s going to step up and score a huge goal.”
“We know we have depth,” Marchessault said. “We know if we roll four lines and get a good forecheck, we’ll get rewarded. And topping that off, I think our discipline has been unbelievable. You know what? They wanted to set the tone with being undisciplined like (they were) in Game 1, and we set the tone back by scoring the first goal there.”
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Barbashev also set a physical tone by rocking Florida wrecking ball Radko Gudas when the game was still scoreless. The Tkachuk-alanche on Eichel was an even bigger hit. But Eichel returned, Gudas did not.
“This is the Stanley Cup Final,” Martinez said. “I mean, there’s going to be big hits, there’s going to be things like that that happen. To see (Jack) bounce back and continue there, I mean it gives the guys a big boost.”
In every department, the Knights have just been too much for the Panthers.
“I think our depth has been a strength all year,” Cassidy said. “It is the biggest reason we are still here, why we beat Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas, and why we’re ahead against Florida. I just feel that we have the best team from player one through 20. That’s just how I feel.”
That’s how it looks, too.
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LAS VEGAS – Unable to change momentum in this lopsided Stanley Cup Final when he has the puck, Matthew Tkachuk decided to make an impact without it.
Hopping off the bench in the second period of an out-of-reach Game 2 and seeing puck carrier Jack Eichel cutting up centre ice with his head down, Tkachuk planted his feet, lowered his shoulder and crunched the Vegas Golden Knights’ top centre so hard and clean, Eichel’s helmet popped off, his right leg buckled, and he rushed painfully to the dressing room.
“It doesn’t matter who you are. You shouldn’t be going through the middle with your head down. You’re gonna get hit,” Tkachuk said, unapologetic. “It’s nothing. It’s not a big deal. He’s a really good player, and really good players can get hit too.”
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Except: It is a big deal.
Because Eichel, surprisingly, returned for the third period and, on his very first post-hit shift went hard on the forecheck and set up linemate Jonathan Marchessault for another goal.
“It’s a physical game. You’re going to get hit sometimes,” Eichel said. “It was definitely a big collision. I got my wits back about me and realized I was fine, and just kind of moved on.”
And because Eichel has kicked off this final with back-to-back two-assist games and now has racked up the third-most points ever by a first-timer to the playoffs (22).
And because the Golden Knights just cruised past Tkachuk’s Florida Panthers in a 7-2 romp, have tripled up their overwhelmed opponent by a total score of 12-4, and the gulf between the sides’ best players is widening by the minute.
Eichel responded to the collision by impacting the scoreboard. Tkachuk responded by taking two 10-minute misconducts, increasing his series PIM total to 36, and potting a meaningless goal in garbage time.
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Let’s be clear: The hit was as clean as it was mean.
Eichel, who toe-picked his way to vulnerability, and Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t dispute it.
“It’s OK to get hit. This is part of the journey,” Cassidy said. “It hurts to win, and it’s not supposed to be easy. So, good for him.
“Great to see him come back. Not only does it give us juice, but sometimes it can take away juice from the other team if they see a guy come back.”
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Bingo.
The Panthers look juice-less.
They wouldn’t be the first group of men to fly home discombobulated after four nights in Vegas, and they now face the unenviable task of swiping four of five from hockey’s most organized, disciplined and dialed-in team.
We could point to Sam Bennett’s 10-game goal drought or Brandon Montour’s 10-game point drought or Radko Gudas’s questionable status for Game 3 and beyond.
But the two pillars of Florida’s remarkable run to Round 4, Tkachuk and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, are crumbling.
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Bobrovsky has allowed eight goals on 46 shots through four and a half periods of work, is getting screened by his own defencemen, and got chased so swiftly Monday that coach Paul Maurice said he’d use two days to decide whether to start him in Game 3.
As for Tkachuk, his last great appearance on TNT was on the NBA panel.
He has taken three misconducts, committed a costly giveaway in Game 1, and seems more preoccupied with trying to antagonize Adin Hill and Alex Pietrangelo than imposing his hockey skills on the Knights.
For the record, Tkachuk says he was “surprised” at the misconduct he was handed after the Eichel hit but deserved the second one for whacking Michael Amadio’s stick out of his hand after a stoppage in play.
He then fired a plastic rat a fan had tossed on the ice towards the Knights’ bench.
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The question must be asked: Have Tkachuk and the Panthers lost the plot with their preoccupation with trying to stir up the nonsense?
“I don’t think so. I just think we’re a big, physical team,” Tkachukc said. “That’s how we have played the last second half of the year and been successful. I just don’t think there’s teams that play as physical as we do. So, maybe you guys think that a little bit too much. But at the end of the day, it’s just how we play.
“If we were playing physical and [ahead] in the game, you guys would be like, that’s the recipe for success. So, we’re just sticking with our game.”
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Eichel is sticking with his game, too, which means setting up his wingers, contributing to a suddenly hot Vegas power-play, and breaking up plays in the D-zone.
“I mean, he’s unbelievable right?” Marchessault said.
“It’s not just with the puck. It’s without the puck, the way he works everywhere on the ice. He’s one of those guys that makes everyone look better. He gets a massive hit there, goes into the locker room, first shift back in the third period, he gets on the forecheck, on the body, wins his battle, finds me. I mean, that’s the resiliency we have in that locker room, and it starts with your top guys and goes right through the lineup.”
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Starts with your top guys.
Florida’s top guys are either MIA, off the rails, or threatening to turn into pumpkins.
If they don’t rein in the nonsense and deliver Thursday at home, they too will soon be caught with their heads down at centre ice — in the handshake line.
“We do have to tweak a few things,” Tkachuk admitted.
“They’re halfway there, and hopefully they’re thinking about that a little bit as they’re coming to Florida. I think that could work in our favour. But we definitely have to prepare, give everything in this one game here, and just get a little bit of momentum back.”
Fox’s Fast 5
• That Cassidy trusts his fourth line of William Carrier–Nicolas Roy–Keegan Kolesar to shut down the Nick Cousins–Sam Bennett–Tkachuk line tells you all you need to know about the depth of the Golden Knights.
Wanna talk depth?
“It is the biggest reason we are still here, why we beat Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas and why we’re ahead against Florida,” Cassidy said. “I just feel that we have the best team from player 1 through 20.”
• Very cool to see Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo in town to support ex-Sabres Eichel and Sam Reinhart.
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• Speaking of former Sabres, because Radko Gudas got banged up in Game 1, Maurice surprised by dressing an 11-and-7 lineup, inserting seldom-used defenceman Casey Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald’s appearance marked his first in 43 days. He skated just 8:08 in a Round 1 loss to Bruins. That Fitzgerald, who played limited minutes in just 27 games this season, is Florida’s next man up speaks volumes about the contrast in defensive depth between the two teams.
Gudas was taken out of the game — on his 33rd birthday, no less — by a solid reverse hit by Ivan Barbashev. No update was given on his health.
Massive concern.
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• Connor Bedard got jokes.
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• The piping-hot Jonathan Marchessault has 10 goals in his past nine games and might just shoot his way to a Conn Smythe Trophy.
“I have to face his shot every day. It’s unbelievable,” Hill said. “When he gets in tight, he’s probably one of the hardest guys in the league to stop. There’s a reason why he’s scoring.”
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