SACRAMENTO – Chris Paul doesn’t believe in letting injuries or ailments affect his psyche, so much so that he said he often thinks medicines are like placebos.
Paul believes nearly anything can be overcome through mental toughness, and on a night he battled through arm and leg pain from the previous game and was later whacked in the face Wednesday night, his belief held true as he recorded a season-high 40 points to go with 13 assists and eight rebounds in a win against the Kings.
“They sort of played back on the ball screen and stuff like that,” Paul said. “Got my first couple shots to go down, then it was on from there.”
Just two nights prior, Paul entered the postgame press conference room with a giant wrap around his right arm, the result of absorbing an opponent’s elbow. But he said that game he’d be fine by Friday, and at shootaround Friday morning, with tape running along his right forearm, he reiterated that point.
“I’ll be all right by 7:30,” Paul said, before remembering the start of the game was sooner. “Or 7 o’clock, so about 7:10, really.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Paul put the aches and pains behind, posting 40 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds before he ever committed a turnover, the first of which came late in the fourth quarter. Head coach Doc Rivers said he’d keep an eye on Paul during the game to see how he functions, but he didn’t look like a player favoring anything.
“He’s just tough as they come,” Rivers said. “We tried to keep his minutes down to a manageable point, which we did. But he’s just a tough kid. He knows we’ve got a couple of days off so he can get right. He didn’t have any bad injuries. He just has little nagging bangs, so he’ll be fine.”
Rivers sounded like Paul does every time he gets nicked up. Few things will keep Paul out of a lineup – a trait that follows Paul every stop he makes. Sometimes, coaches and trainers need to hold Paul back from himself.
Paul said back in New Orleans, head coach Monty Williams would sometimes take his shoes out of his locker so he couldn’t practice.
“I was mad, but I was coming back from a knee surgery,” Paul recalled.
It’s not to that point for Rivers, who knows he needs Paul with the injuries all around. There’s no Blake Griffin. There’s no Austin Rivers. On Friday, there was also no Paul Pierce, who didn’t make the trip for personal reasons.
“I think he should be aggressive every night,” Rivers said. “But tonight we needed it. I thought he really won the game for us in the first half, because I thought he was the only one early on really competing for us, and kind of kept us in it.”
Paul didn’t just make it through the game. He did something he had never done before, recording his first career game with at least 40 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
He said he can be banged up, but nobody else will care, so there’s no point in dwelling on it. He believes most of the pain is mental, anyway.
“You’ve got to play through it,” Paul said. “Whatever it is.”
In addition to Paul’s 40 points, the Clippers received 21 from Jamal Crawford and 22 from Jeff Green, who received his first start as a Clipper and is getting to see what it’s like playing alongside Paul after years of going against the point guard.
“We all call him ‘captain’ for a reason,” Green said. “He puts us in positions to score. He sees things we don’t see. He’s making the game easy for everybody.
“When he’s making shots and getting everyone involved, the team is tough to stop. I’m glad to be a part of it.”
