The Los Angeles Clippers had a dramatic swing in fortune Monday night in Game 4 of their series against the Portland Trail Blazers, after Chris Paul went down with a broken hand.
The Clippers announced shortly after Paul left the court that he had suffered a third metacarpal fracture in his right hand, which connects the middle finger to the wrist. According to CelticsBlog, the diagnosis for such an injury does not look good for Paul, with the average player having to miss at least 42 games on average. While his injury time hasn’t been officially announced, a team source told the OC Register‘s Dan Woike that Paul’s postseason is “probably” over.
If Paul’s injury wasn’t a big enough blow to the Clippers, Blake Griffin suffered a left quadriceps injury shortly after Paul suffered his broken hand. The extent of Griffin’s injury isn’t known, but Doc Rivers said last night during his press conference, “It doesn’t look great for him, either.” Griffin was visibly shaken sitting on the Clippers bench in the final minutes. Rivers did add that Griffin has a “50-50” chance of playing in the next game.
Either way, with Paul out, this series has become the Blazers’ to lose. And depending on the severity of the Griffin injury, this leaves the Clippers even more shorthanded than they already were. Not to mention J.J. Redick had a bad shooting night, likely due to nursing an injured heel. The Clippers don’t exactly have tons of shooters, and need Redick to perform. Their bench isn’t very deep, and they will likely have to start playing guys off the bench that haven’t seen much time during the postseason.
"My job as a coach is to figure out a way of getting us up and ready for game five." – @DocRivers pic.twitter.com/t0zkA6DgnH
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 26, 2016
This is not to say that the Clippers aren’t talented. But Chris Paul’s game really makes the Clippers flow, and he absolutely makes his teammates better, almost more so than anybody else in the league. His absence would likely affect DeAndre Jordan the most, with Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford not being great passing guards. The pair also shot just 5-of-22 from the field on Monday night.
If they hope to save their season, the Clippers are going to have to dig deep into their playbook, because the personnel just isn’t there now with Paul out. They will be playing an entirely different game for (at least) the next two games of the series.
The Clippers have been in this situation before. In 2013, the team was up 2-0 on the Memphis Grizzlies, when Russell Westbrook tore his MCL and was announced out for the postseason. Hoping Westbrook’s injury would help them advance deeper into the postseason without having to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the next round, the Clippers never even got the chance. The Grizzlies powered back to knock Los Angeles out of the playoffs.
Stephen Curry’s strained MCL is being compared to Westbrook’s 2013 injury, putting the Clippers seemingly in a better position to advance with Curry out for possibly a pair of games in the next round of the Western Conference playoffs. However, I believe the Warriors are more than capable of beating either the Clippers or Blazers without Curry, as their style of play still works without him and they still have the most talented bench in the league.
McCollum gets the steal and the slam on TNT! #NBARapidReplay #CLIPPERSvBLAZERS https://t.co/KBXZvhgaId
— NBA (@NBA) April 26, 2016
Aside from that, the Blazers are set up very nicely to win this series with the Clippers’ unfortunate series of events, coupled with how well they have been playing. Damian Lillard is being Damian Lillard, averaging 20.5 points per game, along with 4.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists. The league’s most improved player, C.J. McCollum, is averaging nearly 18 points per game, and we have now seen podium games from both Mason Plumlee, and more recently, Al-Farouq Aminu.
The Blazers are young, and despite their lack of playoff experience for most of their roster, they can certainly ride this momentum and find comfort in knowing that they were able to compete with the Clippers at full strength, so now there’s no reason for them not to be able to beat them short-handed.
Nobody expected the Blazers to make the playoffs this season. A year removed from losing four of their five starters, Terry Stotts has been able to coach up a group that includes eight new players, and instead of preparing to decide who to draft, it now looks like they could very well handle the Clippers.
Losing this series would be a huge opportunity wasted for the Blazers, but I don’t think they have any plans in doing so. This is their chance to shine.
