It bore the wrath of Chris Paul, kicked squarely off the floor and under the Clippers’ bench as their one-man engine angrily left Monday’s game with a fractured third metacarpal in his right hand. In Griffin’s absence, Paul’s brilliance helped keep Los Angeles afloat and in the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. Both players will be reexamined by the medical staff, but rumors have surfaced that Chris Paul will not be able to return for the Clippers during postseason.
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Griffin pulled out of the game with a quadricep injury. The guard – wearing a black, blue and red pair of his Jordan CP3.IX AE signature shoe – scored 16 points and dished out four assists in 25 minutes of play before exiting the game.
The Oklahoma City Thunder punched their ticket to the second playoff round, but the Los Angeles Clippers’ chances of following suit were dealt a big blow when Chris Paul broke his hand on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin suffered a quad injury during Monday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Los Angeles trailed the entire first half, but it would not have been close were it not for Paul.
Hassan Whiteside’s performance against the Hornets resembled the way the North Carolina native played against his hometown team during the regular season, and that wasn’t a good thing for the Miami Heat.
At the 6:18 mark of the second quarter, Portland’s star point guard, Damian Lillard hooked up Maurice Harkless with a no-look pass and then had an incredible block on Paul’s jump shot, which led to an open three-pointer for Allen Crabbe.
Paul left the arena with his arm in a sling and a heavy white bandage around his right wrist and hand.
Luckily for Aminu and the Trail Blazers, it was sooner. Aminu has been averaging 9.3 points in the first three games of the series.
However, their perception might have changed already since the Clippers will be playing without Paul and Griffin due to injury that made them questionable to surpass the Trail Blazers in the first round. “All they’ve done is win two games at home, just like we won two games at home”. The Blazers are a proud team that now has a good shot to advance over the reeling Clippers, but our money wouldn’t be on them advancing past the Warriors even without Curry: They simply don’t have enough scoring options to beat what will be a swarming defense.
The Clippers will now need better focus against Mason Plumlee as a playmarker. Portland scored the next five points to go on top 42-36, and the Blazers carried a four-point advantage into the half. He did not speak to reporters after the game. He also became the third player in these playoffs to have a 30-point, 10-rebounds game. Said it “doesn’t look great” for Paul or Griffin. Portland’s margin of victory was its largest in a playoff game since beating Dallas 125-103 in the first round in 2003.
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The series returns to Staples Center for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
