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Iverson collected 24 points and nine assists as the Philadelphia 76ers avoided a third straight loss with a 103-91 victory over the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.
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However, it was the 6-foot Iverson who showed why he is the benchmark for all of the smaller players in the league by leading the charge that gave the 76ers control of the game.
"Iverson is extremely quick. You can't guard him like you do everybody else," Paul said. "You have to keep him in front of you and hope he misses his shots."
Iverson disagrees with the notion that he took the rookie, who scored a season-low nine points, out of his game.
"I wouldn't say that because that's what people say about me when I don't have an explosive night," Iverson said. "A lot of times it comes down to shots I just missed, or I'm just having a bad game, period. I didn't really do anything different to him. The shots that he took, some of them he just missed and he wasn't real, real aggressive tonight."
After scoring five points during an 11-0 run that bridged the first and second quarter, Iverson netted 10 during a 14-5 burst that he capped with a 15-foot jumper, giving the Sixers a 62-43 bulge with 1:59 left in the half.
"I think I did fairly well when I defended him," Paul said. "But when you play against someone that talented, you are going to have a tough night."
Chris Webber collected 15 points and 10 rebounds and Andre Iguodala also scored 15 points for Philadelphia, which led by double digits throughout the second half.
"It takes the pressure off Webber and Iverson when they don't have to score every night," Iguodala said. "We rebounded the ball, and we have to get better on defense, too."
The Sixers maintained a comfortable lead despite Iverson not scoring in the third quarter and sitting out the fourth period.
"It was great because I didn't feel good at all," said Iverson, who was suffering from flu-like symptoms. "I was telling coach (Maurice Cheeks) when I was getting ready to go back in that I wasn't feeling that well. He just told me to come back and fortunately everything worked out fine. I think I'm coming down with something. I want to get home and take some medicine."
Cheeks was happy his team played a game that did not come down to the wire.
"We need one. We're entitled to one, I think," he said. "It feels good for the players and myself to play a game where you don't have to worry about somebody getting an offensive rebound or making a last-second shot to win a game. For us, we needed that."
Hornets coach Byron Scottwas not pleased with his team's inability to focus on the game.
"Mentally, we just weren't ready to play," he said. "We weren't ready to defend or to play basketball. We didn't think out there on either end of the court. When you do that against a team like the Sixers, you're going to get killed, and that's basically what happened."
"I thought turnovers hurt us a lot," Hornets forward P.J. Brown said. "We didn't take care of the ball very well tonight. The first quarter felt good and we looked pretty good, but after that everything just went downhill."
Webber sympathized with the plight of the Hornets, who are playing most of their home games this season in Oklahoma City because of the damage done to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
"I could not imagine not being able to play in Philadelphia and have to move to a suburb or town 200 miles away," Webber said. "The best part about being at home and playing in Philly is that you get to sleep in your bed, watch your TV, eat your food and then you come to your home floor. I feel sorry for those guys."
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