Chris Paul, Clippers ready for season opener against Oklahoma City

The first words Chris Paul heard Thursday morning put him in the mood for basketball.

“Congratulations on opening day,” Paul’s wife, Jada, told him as he rolled over in bed.

The season opener was only hours away for Paul and the Clippers, who will play host to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Staples Center in the team’s first game under new owner Steve Ballmer.

The Clippers’ first game will be against the team that dispatched them in the Western Conference semifinals last season, including a crushing Game 5 defeat in which Paul made two turnovers and fouled a three-point shooter in the final minute. Needless to say, the Clippers haven’t forgotten.

“I think there’s a little bit of a sour taste in the mouths of everyone in the locker room,” Clippers guard Jordan Farmar said after the team’s shoot-around Thursday, “but we have a big-picture goal and it’s really just the first step in that direction, trying to build on every day and start off on the right foot and take it from there.”

Many Clippers players watched Oklahoma City’s opener Wednesday, a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in which Thunder guard Russell Westbrook scored 38 points but could not fully compensate for the absence of injured star Kevin Durant. Durant will be sidelined at least into December with a broken bone in his foot.

“They looked really good early,” Farmar said of the Thunder. “It looked like Westbrook carried a lot of the load and then just seemed to get tired as the game wore on, but that’s how it’s going to be for them. We just have to make sure we put a lot of pressure on him and try to hold down the other guys as well.”

Paul, an avid watcher of other teams, spent much of the last two evenings watching season openers. There was a common theme.

“It’s like nobody can make a shot early because it’s like, who’s going to make that first shot of the game to start the season?” Paul said. “It is what it is, but once you get past that, it’s what you do all the time.”

Paul is still trying to make it past the conference semifinals for the first time in his career. As he approaches his 30th birthday in May, does he sense the importance of seizing the moment at this point in his career?

“I’ve been trying to seize the moment since I was 22,” Paul said. “Thirty, I don’t think my age has anything to do with seizing the moment; I think you’ve just got to do it. It’s not about me, it’s about everyone on our team.”

Twitter: @latbbolch