Chris Paul fractures hand in Clippers-Blazers Game 4, ruled out

The NBA has seen its second injury to an All-NBA point guard in as many days. One day after presumptive Golden State Warriors superstar back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry sprained the MCL in his right knee, Los Angeles Clippers leader Chris Paul left Monday night's Game 4 of his team's series against the Portland Trail Blazers with what was later diagnosed as a fractured third metacarpal in his right hand. In other words, he broke his hand.

Paul appeared to suffer the injury while defending the Blazers' Gerald Henderson on a shot blocked by DeAndre Jordan with 6:28 remaining in the third quarter. Take a look here:

Paul left the game with 6:07 remaining in the third quarter and went to the locker room for evaluation. The diagnosis was announced early in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers went on to lose 98-84 as the Blazers tied the series at 2-2.

The full extent of the fracture is not yet known, although ESPN's J.A. Adande has reported that a source tells him the expectation is that Paul will miss the remainder of the playoffs. Paul left the arena with his arm in a sling and a cast on his hand:

Paul is a fierce competitor who regularly plays through pain, but he has missed multiple playoff games with injury in the past (including last season) and could very well sit for considerable time (though one expert suggests he could be back in a week). Unlike with the Warriors and Curry, a prolonged absence would seem to put the Clippers' chances of moving on to the conference semifinals into serious jeopardy. Not that a CP3 injury is a totally unfamiliar scenario for the franchise:

The Clippers got more bad news later in the third quarter went Blake Griffin went down with a re-aggravation of his left quadriceps injury. Doc Rivers said that he is currently "50-50" to play in Game 5.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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