Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul finished Tuesday night with 14 points and 18 assists against visiting New Orleans Pelicans, the Suns 112-100 pelicans, who are eighth in the West. With 1:34 left in the second quarter, Assist Crowder hit a three-pointer and Paul Gap's career assists came to 10,336 to surpass Suns legend Steve Nash at number three on the all-time assists list.
Paul ended the night with a season-high 18 assists, with the Suns winning 112-100, contributing 10,346 assists to his career. He is now trailing only John Stockton (15,806) and Jason Kidd (12,091) on the all-time list. "I'm grateful, and I thank God for giving this opportunity," Paul said. "I say this all the time, not only to be in a team, but still in the league, but also to keep playing. You don't take it for granted. ”
However, Paul, 36, admits he is unlikely to top the charts. "When I first got into the league, I looked at that roster, I saw John Stockton, and I thought, I'm going to look up to him. To finish third and keep racing, I'm grateful and I still have a long way to go. Paul also surpassed Mark Jackson with his seventh assist of the night, his last assist of the first quarter. Paul started the night with six assists behind Jackson (10,334) and seven behind Nash (10,335).
Earlier this season, Paul became the first player in NBA history to score 20,000 points and 10,000 assists. Paul also scored 14 points on Tuesday night, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter as the Suns beat New Orleans 32-16 to secure victory. "We've been acting normally," Suns guard Dwon Booker said of Paul's accomplishments. "We walked into the dressing room and said, 'Oh, you've surpassed Steve Nash, Mark Jackson. Give you the ball for the game. The assist that helped Paul move up to No. 3 was against his original team, even though he was the New Orleans Hornets when he was drafted in 2005. In his first six seasons in New Orleans, Paul had 4,228 assists and averaged the league's highest number of assists per game in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. Since then, he moved to the Los Angeles Clippers, where he delivered a total of 4,023 assists in six seasons and again to be the league's number one assists per game in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Paul's 9.4 assists per game ranks fourth in NBA history, behind magic Johnson (11.2), Stockton (10.5) and Oscar Robertson (9.5).