Chris Paul remains the key to keeping Houston's title window open

Rivers, who knows Paul's game as well as anyone with the Houston Rockets after playing with him for three and a half seasons with the LA Clippers, didn't see Houston much early in the season but acknowledged that "Everybody's been saying [Paul was] just a little flat or whatever."

"[But] since I've been here, he's been pretty damn good," says Rivers, a bargain signing for the Rockets in the buyout market right after Paul suffered a hamstring strain in December that caused him to miss 17 games.

"We play through James [Harden] and Chris. We trust those two. Honestly, I'm not just saying this, we still feel like Chris is one of the top-tier point guards in the league. When he's on his A-game…