Who starts at the 2 and 3?

[nickhx2]

pierce will do great things for our crunch time spacing. but i think the most important thing is our main guys will be a lot less tired overall come late game. if blake/cp3 had just 5 minutes of rest then we win game six every single time.

[BlzMwt]

There is also the sacrilege scenario: Chris Paul being the one who sits at the end of games.

I'm going to hear this one a lot: "Chris Paul's a superstar, he's clutch. No way you sit a superstar at the end of games; that's how basketball games are supposed to end. That's against the rules. I want a storybook ending, not a bizarro reality."

Let's not forget Chris Paul has an issue staying focus during clutch moments. Whenever he's in a deficit in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter, he becomes desperate to the point of making dumb basketball mistakes, like Game 5 versus the Thunder two years ago, the one where he fouled Russell Westbrook on a 3-point attempt. In Sudden Death situations where he's down by one or two points the equivalent of a possession, with less than 5 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the same thing occurs. There was one play against the Grizzlies where Paul wanted to win with style, but Tony Allen stole the ball away. Before the steal, the Clippers were two points away from usurping Memphis (one to tie, two to win). After the steal, the deficit increased to four (two to tie, three to win).

I don't know where the data would be for this but I've read that Paul consistently ranks at the top of the NBA over his career in clutch statistics. Whether it is a lack of turnovers, shooting percentage or assists, definitely for assists. You can definitely cherry pick moments over the last 4 seasons worth of 300+ games but I would assume he has came through more times than not compared to his peers. The playoffs he may not be as successful, but whenever ESPN throws up the chart of shooting percentages for "clutchness" in the playoffs Kobe is always cited as having a dreadful percentage, as are most other star players. Would you consider taking out Kobe in a clutch moment in the playoffs? No you would just hope that the coach designs a well rounded play where he gets an open look. The bonus with paul is that even if he doesnt get the open look, he generally won't force the issue like Kobe would

The only thing I can really fault Paul for in the clutch is sometimes being too passive. But I think that comes with being more of a playmaker than a scorer, and Lebron has that same issue. It's likely very difficult to go from one mentality to the other so very quickly. The right basketball play, which is often making the extra pass, only gets praised if the outcome is successful

Then there is this key fact: in the Game 6 collapse, James Harden, a superstar for the Rockets, sat out the 4th quarter.

This is because not only was Harden a turnover machine in the playoffs, he was getting stifled by Redick, Barnes and Rivers. He was barely giving Houston anything on offense and his defense, well its known how much of a lockdown defender he is. There's definitely a difference between sitting "superstar" James Harden in the 4th quarter of a game where your bench brought back into the game than deciding that at the 2 minute mark you'll sit Paul because he apparently isn't clutch

[madmaxmedia]

If Paul 'forces' anything in the playoffs in crunch time, it's only because he has been forced to due to lack of other options on the team, as opposing teams bear down on defense.

Blake has a lot less room to operate in the post, and has less transition opportunities.
Redick is not easily going to be able to pop off a screen and get an open 3.
Matt Barnes is limited.
DJ is limited.

[nba2k16]

I'm going with Wes at the 3 and Redick at the 2 but in the playoffs Pierce at the 3 and Rivers at the 2