There were only a few hours to exhale, even after the end of a breathless first-round playoff series.
The Clippers boarded their charter flight Sunday not knowing whether the point guard who had carried them past the San Antonio Spurs would be available in the opener of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Houston Rockets.
Chris Paul was officially listed as questionable for Game 1 on Monday night at the Toyota Center with the strained left hamstring that left him hobbled for the final 21/2 quarters of the Clippers’ 111-109 victory over the Spurs in Game 7.
The uncertainty placed an unusually large onus on a training staff that Paul has routinely described as the best in the NBA.
“I said it before, our training staff is amazing, the amount of people that we have day in and day out trying to make sure that we’re ready to play,” Paul said Saturday night after banking in an improbable running jumper over the Spurs’ Tim Duncan with one second left for the final points in a game that featured 31 lead changes and 16 ties. “We’re really about to see what they’re made of now since we’ve got a day and a half, I think, to get ready for Houston.”
Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said after Game 7 that his best guess was that Paul, who played in all 82 regular-season games for the first time in his 10-year NBA career, would sit out the series opener.
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