Trail Blazers at Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers looked like things were finally breaking their way on the injury front, and then Chris Paul reached in for a steal. The fourth-seeded Clippers will be without their All-Star point guard and All-Star forward Blake Griffin when they host the fifth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.
The MCL sprain suffered by Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry on Sunday seemed to make the path to the Western Conference finals much easier for Los Angeles, but the path out of the first round got much tougher the next night. Paul reached in for a steal in the lane in the third quarter on Monday and suffered a broken third metacarpal on his right hand which required surgery on Tuesday that will keep him out for the rest of the playoff. Griffin, who missed over three months in the regular season with his own broken hand and a quad injury, re-aggravated the quad in Monday’s Game 4 loss and will also sit out the rest of the way. The Trail Blazers took advantage of Paul’s absence in Game 4 and outscored the Clippers 32-20 in the fourth quarter, marking the second straight game they pulled away late.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBATV, KGW (Portland)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS: Damian Lillard struggled from the floor in three of the four games in the series, including a 4-of-15 effort in Game 4, but Portland is picking up its star with big efforts from players like Al-Farouq Aminu and Mason Plumlee. Aminu scored a career-high 30 points on 11-of-20 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds, three blocks and three assists in Monday’s triumph after going 11-of-37 in the first three games. “It was just a matter of time,” Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts told reporters. “Obviously (Aminu) struggled shooting the ball the first three games, but that didn’t take away from what he was giving us defensively. It was good to see him break out. Everybody has been encouraging him and he’s put in the time and, like I said, it was just a matter of time before he had a game like that.”
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS: Los Angeles is focusing on the near future and trying to figure out a way to win two more games in this series. "We don't have to be the best team,” coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “We just have to be the best team (Wednesday). And then we have to figure out how to do it one more time." Paul averaged 26.3 points in the first three games of the series and had 16 before going down in Game 4 while Griffin, who aggravated the quad sometime in the second half on Monday and tried to play through the injury until the middle of the fourth quarter, averaged 15 points and 8.8 rebounds.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Plumlee averaged 17.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists in Games 3 and 4.
2. Clippers G J.J. Redick is battling a heel injury and is 5-of-23 from the field in the last two games.
3. Portland G Gerald Henderson scored 16 points in Game 1 but totaled 10 on 4-of-22 shooting over the next three contests.