LOS ANGELES -- After an All-Star season in which he led the NBA in steals, with 2.4 per game, Clippers point guard Chris Paul was named on Monday to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.
Paul received 37 total votes (15 first place and seven second place) from the league’s coaches, who vote for the award. Joining him on the First Team are Miami’s LeBron James, Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka, Memphis’s Tony Allen, New York’s Tyson Chandler and Chicago’s Joakim Noah.
Paul was named to the All-Defensive First Team in 2009 and 2012. He made the Second Team in 2008 and 2011, and he’s the only Clipper in franchise history to be named to an All-Defensive Team.
The All-Defensive Second Team this season comprises San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, Indiana’s Paul George, Memphis’s Marc Gasol, Boston’s Avery Bradley and Memphis’s Mike Conley. For the second consecutive year, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year has failed to make the All-Defensive First Team; in 2012, Chanlder won DPOY and was relegated to the Second Team, and this spring, Gasol suffered the same fate. (Writers vote on the DPOY, whereas coaches’ votes determine the All-Defensive Teams.)
The only other Clipper to receive an All-Defensive Team vote was Eric Bledsoe, who received one second-place vote.
