Los Angeles Clippers: Will Injuries Derail Playoff Hopes?

The Los Angeles Clippers are tied with the Portland Trail Blazers in their first-round series, but with injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, that is the least of their problems.

A year ago, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers mentioned that a team has to have a measure of luck in order to win a title.

"“You need luck in the West,” Rivers said via Grantland.com. “Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us: When you have a chance to close, you have to do it.”"

Rivers would later clarify those comments, stating that a team has to have luck in order to win. He was referring to his Boston Celtics team that hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy back in 2008.

Fast forwarding to the present, when it was recently reported that Warriors guard Stephen Curry would be out for at least two weeks due to an MCL sprain, the luck that Rivers spoke about appeared to be tilting in the direction of the Clippers. After all, these two teams would face each other in the next round of the playoffs if they are able to get by their first-round opponents.

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When the Warriors are at full strength, they are a very difficult team to beat. The fact they set a league-record with 73 victories and never suffered consecutive losses during the regular season proves that much.

However, with Curry out of the mix until at least the middle part of that potential series, the odds of the Clippers advancing to the Western Conference Finals didn’t seem so impossible anymore.

But in a cruel twist of fate, the Clippers would feel their own version of the Warriors’ pain just hours after the news about Curry had surfaced. Midway through the third quarter of their Game 4 loss to the Trail Blazers, Chris Paul suffered a broken bone in his right hand when he attempted to steal the ball from Gerald Henderson.

As illustrated in the video below, Paul immediately looks at his hand on the ensuing possession.

According to ESPN, team sources advise that the injury will more than likely require surgery and that the recovery time can range anywhere from three to six weeks. In other words, there’s a good chance that Paul will be out for the remainder of the postseason.

How valuable is Paul to the Clippers?

Well, the Clippers outscored the Trail Blazers by 13.2 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor and they were outscored 10.4 points per 100 possessions when he was on the bench.

Along with that, through the first three games of the series, Paul averaged 26.3 points and 8.3 assists per contest, while limiting his counterpart, Damian Lillard, to 13-for-39 shooting in Games 1 and 2.

Needless to say, his presence will be missed at both ends of the court. And as if losing Paul wasn’t bad enough, Blake Griffin sustained a left quad injury in the fourth quarter.

Although Griffin did make an attempt to return, he eventually departed for good with just under six minutes left to play.

When Paul was hampered with a hamstring injury during last year’s playoffs, Griffin stepped up nicely, to say the least. Against the San Antonio Spurs, Griffin averaged 24.1 points and 13.1 rebounds on 47 percent shooting during a memorable seven-game series.

In the conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets, Griffin averaged 26.9 points and 12.3 rebounds on 56 percent shooting.

The caveat to the aforementioned scenario is that Griffin was not hobbled by an injury during the 2015 playoffs and barring some unforeseen miracle, he will not be at 100 percent the rest of the way. Taking that into consideration, the question becomes, can he help anchor a Clippers team that will be without its floor leader for the remainder of the postseason?

In the short term, inserting Jamal Crawford into the lineup should provide the Clippers with a boost in terms of scoring, as he averaged 29 points per game in five starts this season compared to 13.2 points per game when he comes off the bench.

From a defensive standpoint, however, can the Clippers contain Lillard and C.J. McCollum, who has caught fire over the last two games, scoring 27 and 19 points respectively? Additionally, even if the Clippers manage to outlast the Trail Blazers, their chances of knocking off the Warriors in the next round have diminished significantly with Paul out of the the lineup.

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It is often said that every team is just one mistimed injury away from becoming ordinary. Unfortunately for the Clippers, they have become the latest victim of that harsh reality.