Doc Rivers says he would be ‘shocked’ if Chris Paul is not an All-Star

Chris Paul was not selected as a starter for the All-Star game for the second year in a row.

Paul, who received 551,167 votes, came in behind Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (1,513,324), Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (1,152,402) and Houston Rockets guard James Harden (1,069,368).

The Clippers’ superstar point guard, who turns 30 in May, probably will be selected as an All-Star reserve by coaches.

“I would be shocked if he wasn’t,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said Thursday before his team played the Brooklyn Nets.

Paul said at practice Wednesday that he’s OK with being a reserve.

“Over the course of my career I’ve had the opportunity to do both, be a starter, which is cool when the fans vote you in [because] they want to see you,” Paul said. “And then it’s also a very big honor when the coaches do it. Those are your peers. It’s always a huge honor to be an All-Star.”

Rivers said he thinks Paul was overlooked by fans because of his style of play.

“It’s a little like [Tim] Duncan in that way where he just keeps doing it every night and people just don’t notice it and pay attention to what he does every night,” Rivers said. “He’s not that flashy, he’s not dunking and doing everything, so people don’t notice how good he is every night.”

Paul is averaging 17.6 points on 46.5% shooting from the field and 9.6 assists a game. Rivers also pointed out that one of the main things that he does for the Clippers doesn’t even show up on the stat sheets.

“This is the one thing I’ll say on Chris’ behalf for All-Star, he’s the only point guard, him and [Russell] Westbrook I’d say, they guard the best guy every night,” Rivers said. “Those two guys do. A lot of the other guys don’t. That has always stood out to me with Chris. Chris not only does, but he guards him well.”

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