With Blake Griffin Out, Clippers Pinning Hopes on Chris Paul
LOS ANGELES — Now more than ever, it's fitting that Chris Paul is the face of State Farm. Like a good neighbor, Paul has been there whenever the Los Angeles Clippers have needed him during a challenging 2014-15 NBA season.
When the Clippers were sluggish out of the gate amid a 5-4 start, Paul was there, averaging 17.3 points and 9.8 assists against just 1.4 turnovers. When Jordan Farmar faltered and head coach Doc Rivers brought in his son Austin to play backup point, Paul was there, playing big minutes, even though his 29-year-old knees probably protested. While Blake Griffin's newly sharpened jumper wasn't falling, Paul's was there, dropping a solid 38.1 percent of the time from three on a career-high 4.2 attempts
And when Griffin went under the knife Feb. 9 to have a staph infection removed from his elbow, Paul was and is still there—not in the operating room, of course, but on the court and in the locker room, steering the Clippers through stormy seas.
"He’s the captain, he’s the maestro, and I think with Blake going down, he realizes that, from a scoring standpoint I think, there might be a little bit more on him," said Spencer Hawes, who, as Griffin's replacement in L.A.'s starting five, has to shoulder a bigger burden of his own.
Doc, though, isn't expecting more out of his point guard "because Chris does a lot now anyway."
Indeed, it's difficult to ask more of Paul than the 17.7 points (26th in the NBA), 9.7 assists (third) and 1.9 steals (sixth) he'd chipped in per game prior to the All-Star break.
The Clippers have survived sans one of their superstars before. Last season, they went 12-6 during the month Paul spent recovering from a shoulder injury.
Of course, Paul isn't a 6'10" freight train who can also leap tall defenders in a single bound. There is no Griffin Lite to match the CP3 Jr. the Clippers had in Darren Collison last January.
"The thing that was different last year is when Chris went down, DC is a guard," Rivers said. "He’s more of just a good basketball player. We lost our key ball-handler and our best passer. We were fortunate, our second-best passer was Blake. We don’t have that here."
What they do have is an MVP-caliber floor general who's kept the Clippers afloat through good times and bad.
"I think you’ve got to guard Chris Paul the same way you guard Chris Paul, whether Blake plays or not," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said before Wednesday's 110-95 Clippers win over Houston. "He’s a handful every night."
As well he has to be. The Clippers, while sporting a talented top six (i.e. Paul, Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford), are far shallower than the waters they're trying to navigate. Hawes has been spotty overall. Glen Davis and Hedo Turkoglu, while surprisingly effective at times, are hardly reliable night-to-night staples of a productive rotation at this point in their respective careers. Rivers the younger has had his moments, too, but is no Collison himself.
That's left Paul with as much responsibility for his team's successes and failures as he's had since the league redirected him from the Lakers to the Clippers in Dec. 2011, even before Griffin's elbow got infected. Griffin's absence has only raised the stakes.
But these waters the Clippers will be in for the next few weeks are as murky for Paul's teammates as they are for the Wake Forest product himself. Aside from sitting out what would've been his rookie campaign in 2009-10 after undergoing surgery on his left knee in the preseason, Griffin had missed just four games as a pro prior to his latest hiatus.
Fortunately for the Clippers, they may not have to compete without Griffin for long. They won't play again until Feb. 19, courtesy of the newly extended All-Star break.
L.A.'s schedule thereafter will be challenging—home vs. the Spurs, Kings (likely with George Karl in charge, as reported by Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski) and Grizzlies, on the road at Houston, Memphis, Chicago and Minnesota, with a healthier contingent of its own.
But even a rough record over that stretch isn't likely to drop the Clippers, 35-19 and seeded sixth heading into All-Star Weekend, out of the crowded Western Conference playoff picture.
Nor should they collapse, not with Paul leading the way. As great as Griffin has become, Paul is still the straw that stirs L.A.'s sometimes volatile cocktail. After all, it was his arrival that sparked the Clippers' rise from the ashes—and inspired the Lob City phenomenon.
To some extent, the pressure is on Paul to parlay the Clippers' recent upswing into more than a pithy moniker. In nine previous seasons, Paul has guided his team, be it in L.A. or New Orleans, out of the first round just twice and never into the conference finals.
And with his 30th birthday coming up in May and his body no longer the bastion of explosion and aggression that it used to be, Paul may not have many years left in his rental among the league's elite.
But those concerns extend beyond the scope of Paul's and the Clippers' present circumstances. The playoffs are still two months away. Barring an unforeseen catastrophe, Griffin will be back in action well before then.
For now, though, with Griffin sporting street clothes, the spotlight is back on Paul.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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