J.J. Redick had seen Chris Paul in pain before—and, more often than not, he'd seen him fight through that pain and keep playing.
It wasn't until the second half of the Los Angeles Clippers' Martin Luther King Jr. Day game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, when Paul didn't emerge from the tunnel at Staples Center, that Redick began to worry.
Perhaps a second-quarter tangle with Russell Westbrook had done more than tweak something in the point guard's left hand. Perhaps Paul's fit of anger on the way to the locker room pointed to a repeat of what happened during Game 4 of the Clippers' first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2016 NBA playoffs.
"I'm not assuming the worst by any means," Redick said following L.A.'s 120-98 win, "but I recognize there's probably a good chance he's maybe out a game or two, best case. Worst case, we'll deal with that."
The Clippers now face that worst case.
The results of Paul's MRI on Tuesday revealed a torn ligament in his thumb&mdash ...
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Article written by Josh Martin