Warriors’ Chris Paul doesn’t start for 1st time in 19-year career

Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul came off the bench for the first time in his 19-year career during the Warriors’ 106-95 win over the host Houston Rockets on Sunday.

Paul had started 1,365 career games, which includes the playoffs and regular season. Since 1970-71, this is the most consecutive career starts before coming off the bench for the first time, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information.

“That’s all I have to do to help our team win,” Paul said. “So if that means this, if that means not finishing some games or whatever, you know, if you’re lucky enough to play long enough in your career, there are things that will change, there are things that are going to be different and I’m here.”

After scoring with 6:58 left in the first quarter, Paul was +8 for the rest of the period, going scoreless but dishing out three assists. He was plus-22 in his 27 minutes, finishing with eight points on 3-of-8 shooting, seven assists, five rebounds and a steal.

His sixth man role was driven by Draymond Green (ankle) who made his season debut after missing the Warriors’ first two regular season games. Green had four points in 21 minutes.

In the bench unit’s first stint — and first burst of eight and a half minutes without Stephen Curry — it brought the Warriors from trailing by three to leading by 13 on Sunday. Building, or even just maintaining, a lead or a close game was rare when Curry was on the bench last season.

Last week, a team source told ESPN that regardless of whether Paul was a starter or a reserve, he would play most of his minutes with the second unit.

“It was definitely different,” Paul said of coming off the bench. “But at the end of the day, it’s basketball.”

Golden State coach Steve Kerr praised Paul’s selflessness when he came off the bench.

“It’s huge the way Chris embraced everything,” he said. “He just nodded and said, ‘Let’s go get them.’ “It’s never a big deal. When a veteran, a great player, an All-Star makes that kind of sacrifice, it sets the tone for the whole team.”

With Paul’s streak over, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard — who played in his 833rd career game Sunday night — has more starts than any other active player without an appearance as a reserve. Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks is next on this list, with all of his 748 NBA appearances as a starter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.