Chris Paul’s Perfect 2-for-1

The DeAndre Delusion spins on.

I liked the results of the win over the Heat, and I certainly think Chris Paul can play great and did play against Miami (but ever since he came back from his knee surgery, his percentage of great nights and even good ones is noticably down, and his percentage of mediocre nights is way up). But I didn’t like the way DeAndre Jordan played. The reality of how Joran played is very different from the public delusion people here are trying to spin about it.

Miami played Joel Anthony at center. Anthony is listed at 6′ 9″ but he’s probably closer to 6’7″. He’s the height of a large small forward. His season and career rebounding average is about three rebounds a game, and his season and career scoring average is about two points a game. The main thing that differentiates Joel Anthony from true small forwards is that true small forwards score far more and they even rebound more and they certainly move more.

So, of course, Joel Anthony didn’t have a big night scoring or rebounding or doing much of anything against DeAndre Jordan. But that hardly means it was because of Jordan and it hardly means it’s an indication of how Jordan will do in the future.

A much clearer indication of how Joran will do in the future was the night before when over the hill, old man Camby was dunking at will on him.

As for Jordan’s play down the stretch Wednesdy night against Miami, two key moments come to mind, and if both had been called correctly by the refs the Clippers would have lost and the lost would have been the fault of DeAndre. Fortunately, the refs clearly made bad calls that went the Clippers’ way, and so the Clippers won.

The first was DeAndre’s “block” at the end of the game. Replays clearly showed it was a goal tend, and likely the ball wouldn’t have even gone through the basket. The second was Deandre’s “break away dunk” at the end. The replay clearly showed that Miami intentionally fouled DeAndre to send him to the line and then walked away from him, assuming the foul would be called. But the refs didn’t call it, and since Miami had walked away from him, there was nobody between him and the basket so he strolled in for a dunk that Miami thought wouldn’t count because of the foul. That is why the Miami coach then got a techcnical and got booted from the game . . . for yelling at the refs for refusing to call the intentional foul Miami made on DeAndre.

If the refs would have made those correct calls, the Clippers would have lost and DeAndre would have been the reason.

The baseless pipedreaming about DeAndre Jordan that goes on here, all of it an effort to fog over the reality that he’s only a second round second string center, is the same basic stuff that went on with the pipedreaming over Baron Davis that the same people here were doing last year.