After the Houston Rockets acquired Chris Paul from the Los Angeles Clippers, mnay questioned how much Paul would take away from franchise player James Harden.
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Although it's only preseason CP3 looked to fit right into what Houston had developed under Mike D'Antoni a year ago.
The Rockets topped the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-97 on Wednesday (AEDT) in Tulsa Oklahoma. Paul finished with 11 points and seven assists in the victory.
D'Antoni talked after the game about the blueprint that the Rockets are building on.
"You can see our blueprint," D'Antoni said via the Houston Chronicle. "They (Harden and Paul) could switch off. Eric Gordon didn't miss a beat A lot of good stuff.
There will be hiccups on the offensive end as Paul intergrates himself into the run-and-gun offense, but defensively is where the Rockets may have to really focus.
Patrick Beverly provided defensive player of the year caliber play down the stretch of last season.
With Paul aging, an integuing story to watch will be if CP3 can buy all the way in defensively.
"We had Eric, Luc (Mbah-A-Moute), P.J. (Tucker) off the bench," D'Antoni praised.
"Those three guys guarding, we can be really good defensively, which we know we have to be."