When have Chris Paul’s teams underperformed in the playoffs?

The only playoff series Chris Paul’s teams have ever lost to a team with less regular season wins came in 2016, when both he and Blake Griffin missed two games (including the decisive game six) and the 44 win Trail Blazers beat his 53 win Clippers.

Isn’t the simple explanation that his teams lost because they weren’t better than the teams they faced?

We remember the spectacular particulars, but if you look back the overall results of the series are never surprises. The 2015 Rockets had home court advantage and the same number of regular season wins as the 2015 Clippers. That sounds like a seven game series going to the Rockets, no? And that is precisely what happened. The 2014 Thunder had 59 wins to the Clippers’ 57, that sounds like a six game series going to the Thunder, that is precisely what happened. And so on down the line.

Sometimes we get carried away with micro analyzing matchups and miss the macro big picture: the team with more wins usually wins. It so happens that Chris Paul’s teams have never had more wins than their second round opponents, so they haven’t made the third round. Seems reasonable, no?