The Houston Rockets experienced a major loss on Thursday night, as veteran point guard Chris Paul appeared to seriously injure his left hamstring. Paul was bringing the ball up the court against the Miami Heat and the ball briefly got away from him, leading to him overextending and hurting his hammy. He went down in a heap while grabbing the back of his leg, made his way into the locker room, and did not return to action.
Paul has picked up plenty of knocks throughout his NBA career, but this particular injury looked really bad, especially considering some of the hamstring issues Paul has had in recent years. But according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, it might not be as bad as it looks.
Wojnarowski reported that folks in Houston are optimistic that Paul won’t miss more than 2-3 with this injury, although there’s still no official word about how long he’ll be on the sideline.
There's optimism that Chris Paul's left hamstring injury will cost him only two-to-three weeks out of the Rockets lineup, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 21, 2018
Later Friday night, the Rockets provided their own update about Paul’s status.
Rockets announce Chris Paul has a Grade-2 left hamstring strain and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. pic.twitter.com/SnY7GBl328
— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) December 21, 2018
The Rockets have looked like they have found a way out of their early season slump. Prior to last night’s loss to the Heat, Houston had won five in a row and sit at 16-15 on the year. That puts them in a tie for eighth place in the Western Conference with Memphis and Sacramento and 5.5 games back of first place in the conference. They’ll have to fight to stay in the postseason hunt without Paul, but fortunately, they may only need to do that for a few weeks.
