The Los Angeles Clippers will welcome star point guard Chris Paul back to their lineup for today’s match-up against the Philadelphia 76ers. Paul has been out of action since since suffering a shoulder injury on January 3rd.
While the Clippers have been an impressive 12-6 without Paul, the team is certainly ready to welcome their all-star back to the lineup as they take aim at the stretch run of the NBA season, and make their claim to compete for the NBA Championship.
“I think it’s going to take Chris some time to get his rhythm back,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said before practice on Saturday. “That’s why I am hoping he is healthy and we can play him Sunday, have a practice on Tuesday and play him Wednesday. I think that helps. I think it’s going to take a couple weeks for him to get his rhythm back, no doubt.”
After Paul went through his first practice with the team since his injury, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said, “He looked great. We plan on playing him.”
Paul’s return means that he should be healthy enough to participate in the NBA all-star game next weekend, and defend the MVP award he won last season.
“I like him playing in the All-Star Game, personally,” Rivers said, via the same ESPN report. “I think this is a rare case where he’s ready to play and the All-Star Game is probably the safest venue for him to play. I think it will just be a good thing for him to get up and down. It allows him to go up and down in an NBA game with really good players that don’t play defense in the game so I think that would be very good.”
Paul is averaging 19.6 points and 11.2 assists in 34.6 minutes per game for the Clippers this season.
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