HOUSTO - The Houston Rockets announced today that guard Chris Paul will miss Saturday’s game at Golden State with a right hamstring strain that occurred during the fourth quarter of last night’s game against the Warriors.
He will be re-evaluated after the team returns to Houston.
Paul had to watch the final 22.4 seconds of Thursday’s thrilling Game 5 win over Golden State due to a right hamstring injury suffered on a floater with under a minute left.
Rockets guard Eric Gordon, whose three-pointer from the left wing with 1:21 off a James Harden pass was the eventual game-winner, admitted that there is serious concern about Paul's status.
Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said other players will need to step up if he can't go.
“We’ll see,” D’Antoni said following Houston’s 98-94 win to take a 3-2 series lead. “He'll be re-evaluated tomorrow. They’ll do whatever they can do. If he’s there, great, good for him. If he isn’t, we have enough guys, and it’s time for somebody else to step up. We got plenty of guys over there that will have some fresh legs. That’s for sure."
Paul hit just six of 19 shots and finished with 20 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, but his tenacious defense had everything to do with the Rockets' incredible effort. If he can't play in Game 6, as D'Antoni knows, it changes everything for this team that is just one win away from its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1995.
"His spirits aren’t great," D'Antoni said of Paul. "He wanted to be out there for sure and is worried and all that. That’s normal. We’ll see tomorrow how it goes. What he did was remarkable when we were kind of teetering. He made two or three threes that just, his heart. They weren’t great shots, they were nothing and he made something out of nothing. It was his heart and his will to win. I don’t know how many times everybody’s got to see it in the league, he’s one of the best players to play the game. Just his will alone and what it means. … I don’t know. If you can’t root for him, I think you’ve got some problems."
D'Antoni was alluding to Paul's 18-point second half, which included four three-pointers. Paul's scoring was even more valuable with Harden's extended three-point shooting struggles. Harden had 19 points in the game and was 0-of-11 from the three-point line.
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