Paul out for Game 6; Rockets hopeful
With Paul hurt for Game 6, start goes to Gordon
By Jonathan Feigen
Chris Paul arrived at the practice he watched from the sideline laughing loudly with teammate P.J. Tucker and Rockets development coach Irv Roland about weighty matters of the world — their hairlines and Roland’s plan to use his playoff bonus to fill in his.
Paul had gone through one of many therapy sessions, along with the MRI that confirmed he would be forced to miss Saturday’s Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. But he and the Rockets did not let his hamstring injury stifle their mood or hopes.
The news was undoubtedly a cruel twist of fate for a player who had for so long chased a place in the NBA Finals that are one win away, especially given the litany of postseason injuries that had derailed his teams for so many years.
But the Rockets refused to be devastated by the injury that forced him to limp from the
court in the final minute of Game 5 on Thursday and will offer no more hope for a Game 7 should Golden State extend the series than he will be re-evaluated when the Rockets get back from the Bay.
There was no reason to think he could go from limping to playing quickly.
“It’s tough,” guard James Harden said. “We don’t want to just be down on it. We want to keep our same swag, our same positive energy. We want to feed it off to him as well. Be happy. Be ready. Get this thing right. Get this thing going. Be back in no time.
“We’re not here to be down and moping around and sad. We’re good. I went over to his spot to like 2:30 in the morning just talking, just chopping it up, laughing and talking about life.”
The challenge of dethroning the Warriors, expected to bring their best with a 3-2 deficit, was great enough. Paul’s fingerprints were all over the wins that turned the series around, especially in the second half when he has averaged 13.2 points on 49 percent shooting in the series and scored 18 of his 20 points Thursday before the missed a jumper over Quinn Cook that felled him.
With Paul out, Eric Gordon will start as he had in 30 regularseason games filling in for Paul and Harden. Gordon, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year last season and one of three finalists this season, averaged 21.5 points as a starter, 20.9 points when filling in for Paul. Averaging 14.7 points in the series, he has been his best late in games, averaging 5.8 points in 8.3 minutes in the fourth quarters of the series when he has made 46.2 percent of his 3-pointers, including the game-winners of the past two.
But the Rockets went 15-9 in games Paul missed this season; 50-8 in games he played. Resilient and even cheerful as they remained determined to be, there was no way to diminish Paul’s importance.
“It’s been like that all year,” forward P.J. Tucker said. “We’ll obviously miss Chris. But we got to keep going.
“A player as good as Chris Paul, one of our leaders of our team, obviously it’s going to hurt not to have him. But we’ve been a team all year that’s been resilient to injuries. We’ve had a lot of things happen, but we’ve had different guys step up at different times and keep it going. So, next guy up.”
The next guy in the sevenman rotation would be Luc Mbah a Moute, who sat out the past two games after struggling in his comeback from a dislocated right shoulder, making two of 13 shots in the series. With Gordon in Paul’s role, Gerald Green likely would take Gordon’s spot in the rotation with Mbah a Moute in position to fill the 16 minutes Green has averaged in the series.
“I’m feeling better,” Mbah a Moute said. “It’s weird and hard timing to have an injury the (second-to) last game of the (regular) season. So it’s been kind of hard. Struggling to get back in rhythm. But I just got to stay with it.”
The challenge will not be in finding players to fit in a rotation after bringing just two off the bench. Though coach Mike D’Antoni pointed out his starters played roughly the same minutes as the Warriors’, with two playing slightly more and two slightly less. Replacing Paul’s production against a Warriors team facing elimination could be the toughest test of the season.
“He’s practically won us the last two games,” D’Antoni. “Great opportunity for other guys. We have plenty to choose from. We’ll be ready.
“It’s got to be tough. I can only imagine what he’s feeling right now. But he’ll bounce back from this. We’ll get him back. Hopefully, the team rallies around.Hey, we’ll win one for him and get him back.”
With that in mind, the Rockets insisted the disappointment of bad fortune will not beat them, having come too far to give in, or stop laughing.
“Without a doubt. I don’t have a doubt,” D’Antoni said. “They see the challenge. It’s been a challenge. It is a challenge. Whether CP is there or not, it’s a heck of a challenge and they’re up to it and look forward to it.”