Chris Paul to Return vs. Magic After Missing 5 Weeks with Injury

Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul will return to action Sunday night against the Orlando Magic after missing the past five weeks with a strained left hamstring.

Head coach Mike D'Antoni confirmed Paul's return after Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com first reported the point guard's status.

The Rockets managed to go 12-5 without Paul in large part to James Harden's absurd play during his absence. Harden posted 43.6 points, 8.0 assists and 7.7 rebounds in the 17 games Paul missed, a run of dominance that has returned him to the front of the MVP discussion.

The addition of Austin Rivers was another critical aspect of the team's solid play without Paul, as MacMahon tweeted:

Paul's return will be a major boost, however, for a Rockets team that is currently without starting center Clint Capela, who is recovering from ligament-repairing surgery on his right thumb and is expected to be out of commission until after the All-Star break.

As PJ Tucker noted, Paul is "going to make it tougher for people to guard [Harden]," per Hunter Atkins of the Houston Chronicle.

"Chris is a staple of this team," Tucker added. "He's one of the guys that makes us go. He's one of the smartest players I've ever played with. Any time you get a player like that out there, regardless of what his numbers are or what he does, he's valuable no matter what he does."

When healthy, the 33-year-old Paul has averaged 15.6 PPG, 8.0 APG and 4.0 RPG this season, shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three. And keeping him healthy will be a priority.

D'Antoni noted that Paul will likely sit out the back end of back-to-backs for the remainder of the season, per Atkins, but he'll still get plenty of run.

"We need to be careful about resting people too much, people get out of rhythm, the team gets out of whack," he said. "You need to be really careful with that."

"He's had 17 games off, so I think he'll be pretty fresh,” D’Antoni added.