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Oklahoma City Thunder: Why Chris Paul may be the man to to take them all the way to the playoffs

'We’re just gonna keep our heads down, keep on fighting. We weren’t even supposed to be here,' Paul said, quite simply implying Thunder shouldn't be written off just yet

Chris Paul was undoubtedly the star of the game when he took Oklahoma City Thunder to a resounding 86-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. The game saw him score 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists and made the point guard an instrumental piece in the Thunder win. After the game, the one thought was if Paul could be rightly be considered as the Neo of the Thunder? Listening to him talk about the playoff chances was even interesting.

"We’re just gonna keep our heads down, keep on fighting. We weren’t even supposed to be here," Paul said, quite simply implying Thunder shouldn't be written off just yet. While Lakers fans may rue about how their offense was not up to the mark, there's no denying the scintillating performance that earned Paul rich accolades on Twitter. And it wasn't a one-time thing. Here's a quick look at his improved performances courtesy stats muse on Twitter:

What started off as 43.4 FG% is now a whopping 57.5 over the last seven months and this game was just an indicator of how good a player Paul is. Twitterati weighed in on his performance. "If anyone would have told you that OKC would trade Westbrook for Chris Paul and get better this time last year... what would you have said" was one of the questions asked.

Adding to that were fan theories which felt Paul was best served at Thunder than his time with the Rockets and the results were out there for the world to see. However, it should be noted he helped the team win a franchise-record 65 games in his debut season before being traded for Russell Westbrook last year. There have also been enough prophecies that he could be the next Steve Kerr to post his career in the court. His tactical game awareness and skill to read gameplays have already seen fans imagine him as a great coach once he hangs up his boots as a player.

"Chris Paul is the most complete point guard of all-time. Yes, I said all-time," one of the fans wrote after the game.

There's also an interesting stat that sees Paul join the elites.

Essentially, Paul is second to Jordan when it comes to playoff games with 30 points and the fact he's one-up over LeBron James is a sureshot indicator of the impact player he is for Thunder. And the team will be counting on the point guard to deliver when they take on the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.