Chris Paul's thumb injury nothing to worry about for Clippers

PLAYA VISTA >> Seeing Chris Paul in running shoes and sweatpants before a Clippers practice certainly isn’t good news. And, seeing Paul, the Clippers’ star point guard, standing in running shows and sweats with hand wrapped, well that means the news is certainly worse.

Luckily for the Clippers, appearances can sometime be deceiving.

While Paul didn’t practice Sunday because of his hand injury, he’s not expected to miss any real time. Paul’s officially being called “day-to-day” with a sprained left thumb, an injury he likely would be able to play with if the Clippers were in the regular season.

“He’ll play in definitely one of the two (remaining preseason games), and that tells you it’s not that serious,” Doc Rivers said.

Paul suffered the injury Saturday, but he was still able to finish practice.

He broke a bone in his shooting hand, his right, last postseason, an injury that required surgery and cost him the remainder of his season.

The Clippers play in Utah on Monday before finishing their preseason schedule Tuesday in Sacramento.

Rivers said Paul’s absence from the lineup is purely precautionary.

“Right now, it’s just not worth it,” Rivers said.

Time between games

Because the Clippers only play six games this preseason, they have over a week between their preseason finale and their season opener in Portland.

“You want to be sharp these last two games, but we still have a big gap of time between our first game,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said.

Griffin said the biggest thing the Clippers can do in their final two games is to show growth on the defensive end.

“(It’s) putting together a whole game,” he said. “I’m glad we’re playing these last two on the road. Finding our defensive talk on the road is a little different. At home, home crowd, in front of your home bench, it’s a little easier.”

Rivers said the starters could play expanded minutes in the final two games if they ask for a bigger workload.

Otherwise, he wants to see his team implement new parts of their strategy on the other side of the ball in game situations.

“We’ve put in a lot of stuff lately, and I don’t think we’re good at running it offensively,” Rivers said. “But, I think it gives us a chance to run it against other teams and try to get our continuity.”

Quick hits

Other than Paul and rookie Brice Johnson, Rivers said the injury report was clean for the final two games. ... Paul is expected to be in New York on Wednesday for collective bargaining talks between the NBA the NBPA. Reportedly, both sides are optimistic a deal for the 2017 season and beyond can be reached.

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