Paul unsure about returning
Injured guard says hamstring improved, but progress limited
Chris Paul suggested he does not know when he will return from his left hamstring strain.
“No clue,” he said at halftime of the Rockets-Grizzlies game Monday night at Toyota Center.
Paul aggravated his left hamstring against Miami on Dec. 20, but it also nagged him in late November. He has missed eight games, including Monday, because of it.
The team initially estimated it would take two to three weeks, or until mid-January, for him to return.
Paul, 33, has suffered injuries at an increasing rate his past four seasons. He dislikes discussing them.
Despite questions about his condition and recovery, Paul did not go into detail about the severity of his hamstring strain or the process of his rehab.
“I’m walking,” he said. “I'm better than I was in Miami. Mentally I'm getting better.”
Having to sit out, while the Rockets have surged, has been “tough” for Paul, but he called James Harden’s streaks of consecutive 30-plus-point and 35-pluspoint games “unbelievable.”
Paul did not venture a guess as to when he might return. He is focused on “making sure when I come back I'm ready and I’m not nursing injury.”
He does not expect his left hamstring to cause nagging injuries.
“I don’t,” he said. “I feel like if you put in the work, all the different stuff, then you’ll be fine.”
Since the Rockets signed Paul in July 2017, he has missed more than onefourth of their games, including two in the playoffs because of a right hamstring strain.
Eric Gordon, Danuel House Jr. and Austin Rivers have compensated for the minutes Paul has not played.
Before his injury, Paul was averaging 33.2 minutes per game, his most since the 2014-2015 season — before he suffered the first hamstring injury of his NBA career, which came during the a postseason run with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Monday was the first time Paul was available to talk about the acquisition of Austin Rivers, who teamed with Paul on the Clippers for three seasons.
“He plays the game the right way,” Paul said. “He’s always been a really good defender. He knows the positions. He knows where to be. He’s a competitor. He fits in great.”
Tension had existed between the two guards in the past. After a heated game last season, Rockets players had gone to the Clippers’ locker room looking for Rivers and former Rockets guard Pat Beverley, earning former Rockets forward Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green suspensions.
When Rivers arrived in Houston, he joked about the confrontation and said he had no any problems with Paul.
On Monday, Paul dismissed a question about whether he discussed the signing with Rivers before Rivers joined the Rockets.
“What? I ain’t the GM,” Paul said. “I seen him when y’all seen him.”