Chris Paul's Shake-Up Of Andrew Bynum Is Pretty Close To A Point Guard's Masterpiece

In a big-to-little defensive switch in basketball, the advantage usually goes to the taller forward who can easily back down a misplaced guard for an easy basket in the paint. It's a simple, dependable play off of a switched screen or miscommunication on the defenders' side.

But if your point guard (or "point god," as he was repeatedly called on Easter Sunday) is Chris Paul, who is the kind of player who looks for opportunities to make difficult baskets and who generally converts them, and who has possibly the most controlled crossover dribble in the NBA, then your point guard can be forgiven for not looking for the big man on the block (and if you watch the block, you'll see that Carl Landry doesn't even bother to post up. Paul, everyone on the floor knows, is capable of creating a shot — even with a seven-footer in his face).

It's an understatement to say that Paul played a well-rounded game of basketball last night; it was the most dominant guard play we've seen in the 2011 playoffs, which have been replete with dominant guard play. On Twitter this morning, NBA.com's John Schuhmann pointed out that Paul has been shooting at least 50 percent from the field from every part of the floor in the postseason. His triple-double last night (27 points, 13 boards, 15 dimes) made him just the second player, after Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson, to record 25 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists in a playoff game. And incredibly enough, those numbers aren't far off for his postseason stats. Through four games, he's averaging 25.5 points, 7 boards, and 11.5 assists a game.

This is, we recognize, the kind of play that makes fans of the college game snub the NBA. It's an isolation — there are exactly two players making movement on the court as the other eight stand watching and anticipating the shot attempt. It's no Krzyzewski set. That's a fair critique, to a certain extent, but it ignores what else Paul has done here: he single-handedly takes 12 seconds off the game clock with a few easy shakes of his shoulders and extends his team's lead. It's efficient, and impressive for the play you know he would have made had Kobe Bryant helped off of Landry when Paul threatened to drive from the elbow: He almost certainly would have found Landry for the open basket underneath.

Instead, he found the space for one himself.