The Los Angeles Clippers were put in a really bad situation recently when Blake Griffin was involved in an off-court altercation that resulted in him breaking his hand. Despite Griffin's extended absence, the Clippers have been playing very well lately as they have won five of their last six games and continue to be in the upper tier of the Western Conference. The main reason for the Clippers' sustained success has been point guard Chris Paul, who has been great all year. Head coach Doc Rivers wants to ensure that Paul remains fresh down the stretch, so he will likely rest him on occasion moving forward, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.
This Clippers team is built around its "big three" of Paul, Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Jordan is not much of a threat on offense, though, so with Griffin out a lot of the onus has fallen on Paul to do basically everything for the team. The Clippers do have other talented players who can make things happen, but Paul is now the team's only game breaker on the floor, so he has been heavily leaned on.
In the last five games Paul has rarely gotten rest, and although he has played well, those types of minutes aren't sustainable. Rivers realizes this, and because of that he will reportedly give him an occasional game off before Griffin returns as a way of keeping his star point guard fresh. Paul would likely fight Rivers on sitting a game out, but Rivers said the player won't have a choice in this decision.
Paul is averaging 18.8 points and 9.5 assists per game while making 46 percent of his field goals and 39 percent of his threes through 43 games. Paul is headed to his ninth consecutive All-Star game later this month, and he is certainly deserving as his play has been great, but so too has his leadership.
It is unclear how often Paul might sit out, but it likely won't be too often. In the games in which Rivers forces him to sit, the Clippers will likely go with a point guard rotation of Austin Rivers and Pablo Prigioni. Rivers is in the middle of a great two-game stretch right now, while Prigioni has seen limited minutes all season.
