L.A. Clippers All-Star point guard Chris Paul broke his hand during Game 4 of the Blazers-Clippers first-round Western Conference playoffs series on Monday night.
Paul had to undergo surgery on Tuesday morning to repair the fracture in his right hand. The Clippers released a statement on the team's website regarding Paul's status for the remainder of the playoffs.
"Paul will be out indefinitely," the Clippers said regarding Paul.
Also, in a separate statement from the team, they said that Paul will be re-evaluated in four-to-six weeks. Basically, he's done for the rest of the playoffs. Clippers coach Doc Rivers quipped about putting Paul on the disabled list, "All of a sudden, we’re asking him to get over every screen and force a guy into the paint." He continued, "That takes a physical beating to do that. When your best player is Chris, you have to give that some pause – like, ‘should we do it?’ – and at the end of the day we decided to do it."
To make matters worse, the same fate has been sealed for their other All-Star player, forward Blake Griffin, who re-injured his left quadricep tendon during the same game. An MRI on Tuesday showed that Griffin aggravated the same quad injury that caused him to miss 45 regular season games—including his suspension for decking the Clippers equipment manager in January— dating back to December 26th.
This couldn't have come at a worse time for the Clippers, who have struggled to get past the Western Conference semifinals since the 2010-2011 season when Blake Griffin was a rookie.
Portland point guard Damien Lillard spoke about the prospects of beating Lob City without their star players now that the series is tied at 2-2.
"It changes things a lot -- more so for them. Their best player goes down, the guy that makes your team go. It's unfortunate for one of the better players in the league to go through an injury like that. You don't wish that on anybody. It's not like they have guys who can't play. They still have a really good team. Our mindset has to be, nothing changes. We have to have the same approach defensively and continue to trust each other offensively."
Game 5 between the Clippers and Blazers is back in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
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[via Yahoo Sports]
