Chris Paul came off the bench for the first time in his 19-season career Sunday as the Golden State Warriors faced the Houston Rockets.
He entered the game for Andrew Wiggins at the 6:58 mark in the first quarter.
Paul had started 1,365 career games, which includes the playoffs and the regular season. Since 1970-71, that’s the most consecutive starts to begin a career prior to coming off the bench for the first time, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Paul’s sixth-man role comes as Draymond Green (ankle) made his season debut on Sunday after missing the Warriors’ first two regular-season games.
Last week, a team source told ESPN that regardless of if Paul was a starter or a reserve, he’d play most of his minutes with the second unit.
“[He brings] stabilization,” Green said on Saturday. “We got somebody else to control the game and I think that’s huge for us … where we want to get is that [the second unit is] running the same thing as the first unit is running … but that second unit is going to be great.”
With Paul’s streak now over, the Milwaukee Bucks‘ Damian Lillard — who played in the 833rd game of his career on Sunday night — now has more starts than any other active player without an appearance as a reserve. The Dallas Mavericks‘ Kyrie Irving is next on that list, with all of his 748 NBA appearances being starts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
