Chris Paul Injury: Updates on Clippers Star's Groin Injury

The Clippers couldn't possibly be any unluckier.

All they needed was a win on Wednesday night to get a nice rest before facing San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs. Instead, they got injuries to their two most important players. 

Point guard Chris Paul jammed the middle finger of his right hand in the first quarter, and if that wasn't bad enough, he was seen clutching his right hip in the fourth quarter of LA's 92-80 loss to Memphis. Many assumed the worst: another groin injury. 

In the third quarter, forward Blake Griffin elevated to take a shot and was bumped by Marc Gasol under the basket. As he came down and clutched his knee under the hoop, his teammates expected the worse-case scenario. 

The official word came down from Clippers LACtv's Madelyn Burke:

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#Clippers diagnosis: Blake Griffin has a sprained left knee. Chris Paul has a strained right groin.

— Madelyn Burke (@MadelynBurke) May 10, 2012
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UPDATE: Thursday, May 10th at 8:47 p.m. EDT by Josh Martin

According to Royce Young of CBSSports.com, Paul, along with Griffin, will be a game-time decision for the Clippers ahead of Friday's Game 6 against the Grizzlies. Head coach Vinny Del Negro anticipates that both will play:

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"We had to get Chris out of there in the end -- he was hobbling a little bit. I expect them both to be fine. They were both able to go back in the game. They are going to be sore and injured and they are going to have to fight through it as best they can."

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The Clippers are lucky, in a sense, that Griffin's injury doesn't appear to have him headed in the same direction as Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert. Even after hurting his knee, he finished out the third quarter before receiving treatment. He even returned later in the fourth.

According to ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz, he will undergo an MRI in LA on Thursday, and Paul will also be evaluated on Thursday. 

The prognosis for Paul, however, might not be so positive, as he seems to have re-aggravated the groin injury that kept him out for large chunks of the 2011-12 season. He stayed in Wednesday's game as long as possible and was finally pulled with 1:24 left.

The Clippers had the chance to close out their series against Memphis with a win but instead let the Grizzlies get right back into it. It now stands at 3-2, and without its two leading scorers, it's hard to believe LA is going much farther.

Despite a seemingly commanding 3-1 lead for the Clippers, every game of the series has been close. Two of the games have been decided by one point and one has been decided by overtime. Neither team has won by more than eight points. It's clear that there is no margin of error for either side—but without its two stars, that margin just go excruciatingly smaller for the Clippers. 

It didn't look good on Wednesday, but there is still a chance Griffin and Paul will be OK. Game 6 looms on Friday at 9 p.m. ET, and in the meantime, the Clippers can only hope that their injuries won't crush all of their playoff dreams.