After coming off one of his greatest playoff performances and leading his team on to the next round of the playoffs, Chris Paul may have to come to the realization that he may miss the first game of the western conferference semi-finals against the splash brothers Golden State Warriors. Paul strained his hamstring early in the game on saturday but continued to play while noticeably limping.
Chris Paul’s game 7 performance and game winning shot become so much more extravagant considering his gutsy performance came while Paul dealt with a hamstring injury for a majority of the game. Paul became noticeably emotional on the sidelines after realizing he was hurt and not knowing if he could check back in to the game.
Paul and the Clippers ended up sending home the San Antonio Spurs, but instead of being able to celebrate, Paul has to try and find a way to get treatment and be healthy enough to play in the next round as the Clippers can hardly afford to lose their star point guard against the number one seed Golden State Warriors.
Paul, who finished the game with 27 points said,
“Yeah, I’m going to get with our training staff,” Paul said after the game. “I know my grandmother back in North Carolina is praying right now. She’s praying, and she’ll let my mom pray over it and all that, too, and it will be all right.”
When asked about Paul’s status to Play in game 1, Clippers head coach, Doc Rivers, did not sound very optimistic:
“Yeah, yeah, very,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said when asked if he was concerned about Paul’s injury. “Someone is going to have to step up. I was thinking it’s funny how coaches think with three minutes left, I’m thinking, ‘OK, if we win this game, thank God I signed Lester [Hudson] because now you have two guards left.’ We almost went big, and then we would literally have no other guards left. That was the first thing I thought.
“Chris may play or may not play the first game, but the game is Monday. My guess right now if I had to guess, I would say no, but I’m not sure.”
Lets hope Chris Paul is healthy enough to play effectively and give us a competitive series, as the Spurs-Clippers matchup had everyone at the edge of their seat during the conclusion of each game.
