Blake Griffin Injury: Clippers Will Be Doomed by Limited Star

The Clippers needed to be at full-strength in order to send the Grizzlies packing in the NBA playoffs. With injuries limiting Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, they're as good as done.

LA had a 3-1 lead in the series and had a chance to end it on Wednesday. Instead, the Clippers forced themselves into a situation where they have to play at least one more game, most likely with limited help from their two most important players. In a series that has been one of the tightest of the postseason, that is not going to be easy.

Griffin sprained his left knee in the third quarter on Wednesday, and—as if that wasn't devastating enough—Chris Paul had to make an early exit in the fourth quarter with a strained right groin.

This series has been a battle, each and every game. The Clippers may have held a 3-1 edge heading into Game 5, but it wasn't by much. Each of their wins has come by either one point or in overtime. To win, the Clippers need to be at their best; they don't need their two best players hampered by injuries.

Goodbye, second round.

It's not like either of these players has a clean track record when it comes to injuries. Paul has already been hampered by a hamstring injury and a strained groin injury at points during this season, while Griffin famously missed the entirety of what would have been his rookie year with a broken left kneecap—the same knee he tweaked on Wednesday.

Both players are expected to be able to go in Game 6, but how much will they really be able to contribute? It would be bad enough if only one or the other—Griffin or Paul—was going to be limited by an injury that could escalate into something much worse with one misstep. But both of them are injured. Both of the team's top two scorers, its assists leader, its steals leader, its second-best rebounder, are injured.

That is a lot of compromised production for a team that still needs another win to get to the second round.

And then what? The Clippers face a San Antonio team that is arguably the most dangerous this postseason, with the knowledge that their stars are dealing with very dangerous injuries that, if exacerbated further, could impact their success next season as well?

At this point, the best thing for the Clippers to do is to play it safe, even if playing it safe means being without Griffin and Paul until their future productivity isn't compromised. 

Even if that means sacrificing the chances of getting out of this series alive.