{"id":3628,"date":"2017-01-17T17:05:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T22:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=3628"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:58:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T21:58:04","slug":"impact-chris-pauls-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/01\/17\/impact-chris-pauls-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of Chris Paul&#8217;s Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Los Angeles Clippers\u2019<\/strong> point guard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Chris Paul<\/strong> <\/a>injured his left thumb during the second quarter of the Clippers 22-point victory over the <strong>Oklahoma City Thunder <\/strong>Monday night.\u00a0Paul\u00a0was fighting\u00a0over the top of a screen set by Thunder center <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lauvejo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Joffrey Lauvergne<\/strong><\/a> when he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/eNtVu14MWKQ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">collided awkwardly <\/a>with Thunder\u00a0MVP-candidate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Russell Westbrook.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Westbrook had stopped\u00a0on a dime, as he often does,\u00a0to launch a shot from behind the arc. It has been reported that Paul is set to miss 6-8 weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb, which is a huge blow for the Clippers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Clippers say guard Chris Paul will undergo surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb &amp; is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarcJSpears\/status\/821519906818527233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 18, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was immediately apparent after the collision\u00a0that Paul was hurt. During a subsequent Clipper time-out, Paul headed\u00a0straight back to the locker room with team trainer <strong>Jasen Powell <\/strong>for\u00a0x-rays.\u00a0He did not return.\u00a0 Prior to exiting the game, Paul had collected 8 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal\u00a0in 13 minutes of play.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Impact of Chris Paul&#8217;s Injury<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Flashback to Game 4 of The Portland Series<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Paul kicked a chair and was visibly upset leaving the court, giving fans a flashback to Game 4 of the Clippers playoff series against the <strong>Portland Trail Blazers<\/strong> last season. Paul left that game in a similar fashion after sustaining a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nba.com\/2016\/news\/04\/26\/clippers-chris-paul-breaks-hand.ap\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hand injury<\/a>. It would later be revealed that Paul had fractured his right hand, dashing the Clippers\u2019 hopes of any post-season glory.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Felton Exceeding Expectations as Paul&#8217;s Back-Up<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Veteran point guard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/feltora01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Raymond Felton<\/strong> <\/a>continued to demonstrate his value to the Clippers franchise after Paul left the floor. Felton contributed 15 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 27 minutes against the Thunder. Felton has looked energized and aggressive off the bench, a trend Clippers fans hope continues.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Paul is Necessary for Clippers&#8217; Postseason Success<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Despite the solid play of Felton and the\u00a0imminent return of<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/griffbl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Griffin<\/a><\/strong>, should Paul&#8217;s injury linger into the postseason, the Clippers likelihood of making it out of even\u00a0the first round of the <strong>Western Conference Playoffs<\/strong> is slim to none.\u00a0Paul is simply too critical to the franchise. No one else on the squad comes close to matching\u00a0Paul in terms of basketball I.Q. and the\u00a0ability to move the ball and\u00a0direct the Clippers offense. His loss is\u00a0devastating for a team that is so reliant on their floor general.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Main Photo<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>LOS ANGELES, USA &#8211; FEBRUARY 22: Chris Paul (3) of LA Clippers reacts during NBA basketball game between Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Sunsat Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA, United States on February 22, 2016. (Photo by Mintaha Neslihan Eroglu\/Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Paul injured his left thumb on Monday night. Chris Paul&#8217;s injury suggests a larger role for Raymond Felton if the injury is serious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1670,"featured_media":2306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,62,3],"tags":[65,229,189,96,244],"class_list":["post-3628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","tag-basketball","tag-chris-paul","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-raymond-felton"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}