Blake Griffin Out For Rest Of Playoffs; Chris Paul Undergoes Surgery For Broken Hand

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — Maybe the Clippers really are cursed.

Point guard Chris Paul underwent surgery Tuesday in Los Angeles to repair a right hand fracture suffered in the third quarter of Monday's Game 4 against Portland. He will be out indefinitely, team officials announced.

In four playoff games, Paul averaged 23.8 points, 7.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals. The All-Star point guard averaged 19.5 points, 10.0 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 74 regular season games started for the Clippers.

Forward Blake Griffin will also miss the rest of the playoffs after aggravating the injury to his left quad tendon last night in Game 4. Griffin underwent an MRI that revealed no further structural damage, according to a team statement.

The five-time NBA All-Star will be ready for the start of 2016-17 training camp, officials said.

Griffin originally injured the quad on Dec. 25 in a game against the Lakers and missed 41 games this season due to the injury.

Game 5 is Wednesday at Staples Center.

"We still have home court. No one has won a road game yet in this series," coach Doc Rivers said. "Now we have to find a way of winning tomorrow and that's as far as we can think right now. My job with the guys is to make sure that they're ready and focused. It's easy when you have the injuries we have to think all kinds of other stuff."

Rivers had not yet decided who will start in place of Griffin and Paul.

"We've had 10 different lineups on the board," he said. "Most likely it will be a pretty big lineup."

The Clippers are 25-21 in regular-season games and 1-1 in the playoffs without Paul, who missed two games against Houston in last year's Western Conference semifinals.

"We have a very competitive basketball team and they have proven that all year," Rivers said. "We have won games before without key guys and we can win games in the future without key guys."

In the final two weeks of the regular season, the Clippers won by two points at Oklahoma City and by three points in overtime at Utah without Griffin and Paul.

Paul controls the Clippers' offense like few others in the NBA. However, they installed a motion offense for when Paul wasn't on the floor this season, freeing up scoring guards Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers while letting anyone else get the ball moving.

"We were very effective at it," Doc Rivers said. "Thank God we did that because now playing without him we'll be in motion for 48 minutes."

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