Photo Credit: Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle

Klay Thompson Says Paul and Harden are NBA’s Best Backcourt

The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are atop the Western Conference standings and are two of the most dangerous teams in the NBA this season. Both teams include some of the league’s best talent in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green in Golden State, and James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston.

Between both franchise’s backcourt duos of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and Chris Paul and James Harden, you can not go wrong choosing which is the better duo; both sets have different playing styles and play an extremely important role to their team’s success.

In a recent interview with OpenCourt-Basketball.com, Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson claims Paul and Harden have almost zero flaws in their game and are the better duo this season.

“The [Houston] Rockets are playing phenomenal right now,” said Thompson about the Rockets who are a half game ahead of Golden State in the standings with a 25-5 record. “Chris Paul and James Harden are one of the best, if not best backcourts in the game right now. They’re great playmakers, can both shoot the ball and have almost no weaknesses.”

Statistics wise, Thompson is correct. So far in 2017-18, Paul and Harden have outscored Curry and Thompson on average, 49 points to 47.3 points, out assisted them 18 assists to 8.6 assists, and outrebounded them 10.5 rebounds to 9.4 rebounds. Though the Golden State duo is shooting a better combined field-goal percentage at 48.5 percent and three-point percentage at 42.5 percent, Paul and Harden have led Houston to a league-best 25-5 record.

Disregarding Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson’s two championship rings, as well as being at the forefront of the Golden State Warriors’ 73-9 season in 2015-16, when looking at the numbers, Chris Paul and James Harden are the better duo this season.