January 18, 2017 at 04:40AM / by Josh Martin via Bleacher Report — Front Page
J.J. Redick had seen Chris Paul in pain before — and, more often than not, he’d seen him fight through that pain and keep playing. It wasn’t until the second half of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, when Paul didn’t emerge from the tunnel at Staples Center, that Redick began to worry.
Perhaps a second-quarter tangle with Russell Westbrook had done more than tweak something in the point guard’s hand. Perhaps Paul’s fit of anger on the way to the locker room had pointed to a repeat of Game 4 against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2016 NBA playoffs.
“I’m not assuming the worst by any means,” Redick said following L.A.’s 120–98 win, “but I recognize there’s probably a good chance that he’s maybe out a game or two, best case. Worst case, we’ll deal with that.”
L.A. now find themselves facing that worst case. The results of Paul’s MRI on Tuesday revealed a torn ligament in his left thumb — the same thumb he sprained during the preseason — with surgery slated for Wednesday and six-to-eight weeks of recovery after that, according to the Clippers.
Paul’s latest setback comes at a tough time in the schedule. After hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday, L.A. will play away from home 11 times over its next 13 games. That stretch includes three matchups with the Golden State Warriors, two with the Atlanta Hawks and away dates against the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics.
And that’s before facing the San Antonio Spurs on the return leg of a back-to-back that begins in Oakland coming out of All-Star weekend.
A six-week retreat would put Paul back in uniform on March 1, when the Houston Rockets come to town, after a 16-game absence. If he needs eight weeks to recover, he could miss as many as 24 games before returning to face the Milwaukee Bucks in L.A. on March 15.
The All-Star break will mitigate some of the damage that might have otherwise been done to the Clippers’ record, though it will come at the cost of seeing Paul suit up for the Western Conference squad in New Orleans. His 17.5 points, 9.7 assists, 2.2 steals and .471/.395/.876 shooting splits had all but assured a 10th straight All-Star appearance for the North Carolina native. So did Paul’s impact on L.A.’s fortunes, from his league-leading real plus-minus (9.27, per ESPN) to the Clippers’ 26–9 record with him in the lineup this season.
They’ve had to survive without their floor general before. He was sidelined seven times over an eight-game stretch between late December and early January with a nagging hamstring strain. His absence touched off a six-game skid that preceded L.A.’s current seven-game spurt.
That dip came without Blake Griffin, as well. The 27-year-old power forward has been out of action since having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Dec. 20.
Griffin, though, could be back in the rotation soon. The Clippers originally pegged his recovery time at four-to-six weeks, the latter of which would put Griffin in uniform for a Feb. 1 road date with the Phoenix Suns. He’s recently been seen working out at L.A.’s practice facility in Playa Vista and going through his pregame routine on the court at Staples Center.
Griffin’s return — along with his 21.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists — would go a long way toward mitigating Paul’s absence. For now, though, the Clippers can’t sit around and wait for their younger franchise star to pick up the slack. Nor can they put it all on his shoulders once he’s ready to go.
“Next guy up, I guess,” Redick said. “We’ve dealt with this quite a bit lately and we’ll continue to plug away.”
In the meantime, L.A. will need more from everyone on the roster, especially its remaining guards. Austin Rivers was the first to assume Paul’s position, and helped the Clippers maintain a double-digit cushion during the second half against the Thunder while racking up 16 points, six assists and a game-best plus-minus of plus-29.
“We asked him to guard [Russell] Westbrook for 98 percent of the game, and then we didn’t know he was going to have to run the team, too,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “That was asking a lot, but he came through for us, so that was big for us.”
The younger Rivers won’t be asked to fill Paul’s Jordans on his own. Raymond Felton, a sturdy veteran presence off L.A.’s bench, started four times at the point during Paul’s last sideline stint. Jamal Crawford can assume some of his creative duties, and might be better off doing so amid his own shooting woes of late (20.5 percent from the field, 8.3 percent from three over his last five games). All three figure to see significant jumps in playing time, just as they did when Paul was previously out of commission.
What you won’t see the Clippers do is heed any nagging calls to break up their core. They’ll need a healthy Griffin to help them survive sans Paul, and might not have their floor general back until after the Feb. 23 trade deadline. Both should be fine well before the postseason starts in mid-April.
The more immediate concern for L.A. will be holding steady in the standings. Just four games separate the fourth-place Clippers from the sixth-place Memphis Grizzlies and seventh-place Thunder on the Western Conference ladder, with the Utah Jazz (two games back) lurking in between.
L.A. could play as many as 15 games against teams currently in the playoff hunt by the time Paul heals. That brutal swath could jeopardize whatever slice of home-court advantage the Clippers had been eyeing come playoff time.
Not that they are going to concede to the doom and gloom — not yet, anyway.
“We just have to keep attacking and keep moving forward,” Austin Rivers said. “I know we can keep this win streak going if we take it game by game and keep stepping up.”
All quotes obtained firsthand. All stats via NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.
Originally published on Blogger
