Review of Chris Paul’s 3 playoff battles against the Spurs

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sat courtside with Chris Paul during a Summer League game over the weekend, underscoring that the two NBA legends are now on the same side after some epic playoff battles in their past.

From Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki to Kevin Durant, the Silver and Black’s biggest rivalries have often revolved around star players during their championship runs. They faced Paul in the playoffs three times. Interestingly, in none of those cases did San Antonio reach any of its three Finals appearances since CP3 joined the league.

Below we analyze all of the Spurs’ struggles so far with their new point guard.

2012 Los Angeles Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs – Second Round

This was by far the most boring of their three duels. With rookie Kawhi Leonard on the team, Tim Duncan and his team swept the Los Angeles Clippers in the middle of a 20-game winning streak that led them to their first Western Conference finals since 2008.

The highlight of the series came in Game 3. After San Antonio won the first two games by 16 and 17 points, LA built a 22-point lead in the first quarter of Game 1 at Staples Center. The Spurs countered with a 24-0 run in the third quarter and eventually won by 10 points to take the series a night later.

The Spurs’ first loss of the 2012 postseason came in the WCF against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Although it was the team’s first setback in over a month and a half, it began a surprising four-game losing streak that ended the league leaders’ season in a strike-shortened year.

2008 San Antonio Spurs vs. New Orleans Hornets – Second Round

It’s a seven-game series, although only Game 7 was really close, and even that was decided by nine points. The New Orleans Hornets took a 2-0 lead by 19 and 18 points before the Spurs countered with 11 and 20 points. The two teams then traded 12- and 20-point wins before Manu Ginobili led all scorers – as he did in Game 6 with 25 – scoring 26 more points to seal the Spurs’ 91-82 victory in the Crescent City at the end of the game.

Paul was the leading scorer in three of the seven games of the series, including 35 in Game 5. The reigning NBA champions were so exhausted that they lost the subsequent conference finals in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers.

2015 San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Clippers – First Round

Although that series also consisted of seven games, it was much more exciting than their battle with CP3 seven years earlier. Unlike 2008, when the visiting team only won in the finals, the Spurs won Game 2 in Los Angeles before the Clippers avoided a 3-1 deficit by winning Game 4 at what was then the AT&T Center thanks to 34 points from Paul. After San Antonio won again at Staples in Game 5, LA avoided road elimination in Game 6, setting the stage for Game 7.

The Spurs were sixth after their fifth and most recent championship. They were trailing 109-109 with 8.8 seconds left in Game 7 when Paul pushed Danny Green into the zone and threw a banker over Duncan with 1.0 seconds left. That dramatic throw from the future Hall of Fame point guard not only ended the Spurs’ hopes of a repeat, but it ended that version of the Spurs. The following offseason, they brought in LaMarcus Aldridge, who became the focal point along with Leonard for the next few years, especially after Duncan retired in 2016 and Tony Parker left in 2018.