Chris Paul expected to play Sunday vs. Heat

After undergoing offseason thumb surgery, Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul is expected to suit up on Sunday vs. the Miami Heat in China.

Chris Paul says he'll be ready for Clippers' season opener

Clippers star Chris Paul says he will be ready for the season opener as he deals with a thumb injury.

Chris Paul Thumb Surgery Is No Big Deal

Paul is expected to miss eight weeks recovering from thumb surgery, but will be back in plenty of time for the start of the regular season.

Chris Paul Injury: Reaction To Point Guard's Thumb Surgery

Any time your star point guard goes under the knife for surgery, it's going to send waves of panic through the fan base. The reaction around Chris Paul's recent thumb injury now that time has passed: stay calm, it isn't that bad.

As Eric Patten of NBA.com notes, Paul has been playing non-stop basketball for quite some time now. His busted thumb didn't impede his performance very much and Paul was already in line to take a bit of time off from basketball following his gold-medal performance and the impending birth of his wife's second child.

All things considered, after a whirlwind eight months that consisted of 60 regular season games, 11 playoff games, a five-game exhibition schedule with Team USA, and eight more in London, the rest may do Paul well. In effect, he took the court 84 times between Christmas and the closing ceremonies.

Paul averaged 8.3 points, 5.1 assists and 2.5 steals per game through the Olympics and didn't look at all bothered by the injury. Coach Vinny Del Negro wanted his star to get the surgery done sooner rather than later to allow time to for it to properly heal so it won't be an issue in the future.

Understandably, Clippers Nation has every right to feel a bit jittery. It is the Clippers after all, and both Blake Griffin and Paul went down with injuries sustained during Olympics practices or games. But try and tell both those players they can't suit up for the Olympics and most everyone is pretty sure what the response will be.

Paul is expected to be out for eight weeks, which calls into question Del Negro's claim he'll be ready in time for training camp since that starts in six weeks. Either way, the NBA season starts in approximately 10 weeks, so Paul should have plenty of time to get healthy.

As for all the doom, gloom, and rapture thoughts rolling through Clippers Nation - as Pattern points out: just remember your team has Paul, Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler all on the floor at the same time. Things could be much, much worse.

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Chris Paul Injury: Vinny Del Negro Says Point Guard Expected Back For Start Of Season

Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro confirmed Tuesday that guard Chris Paul won't miss any part of the regular season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. He should only be out eight weeks.

In a release on the team's website, Del Negro said that his All-Star point guard received the surgery to "get [it] done now so it doesn't bother him later."

Paul suffered the injury during last season's playoff run and again hurt his thumb during Team USA's preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The 6-foot guard missed a couple of practices with the national team, but played and started in all eight games of the Americans' gold-medal run in London.

Via the team's release:

"Chris brought home the gold and had a terrific Olympics," Del Negro said. "He re-aggravated an injury from last season early in the [Olympic] training process and played through it."

In the Olympics, Paul averaged 8.3 points, 5.1 assists and 2.5 steals per game while playing with the injury. The toughness he displayed in London, and the fact that the Clippers don't play their first regular season game until Oct. 31, 2012, means Los Angeles' floor general should be good to go.

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Clippers Guard Chris Paul Will Miss 8 Weeks With Torn Thumb Ligament

Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul will miss eight weeks after undergoing successful surgery on his right thumb, the team announced on Tuesday. After the break, the star point guard will be able to return to all basketball-related activities with full contact, the team said.

The surgery repaired a torn ligament in Paul's thumb, as the Los Angeles Times reports that he may have initially hurt the thumb during the playoffs.

Paul re-aggravated his thumb during Team USA's first day of training camp in Las Vegas last month and sat out a couple of practices leading into the Olympics. An X-ray then revealed a sprain, according to the newspaper.

That all means his performance at the 2012 London Olympics came despite the injury. Starting eight games en route to a gold medal, Paul averaged 8.3 points, 5.1 assists and 2.5 steals per game for the Americans. Perhaps his biggest contribution came in the gold medal game against Spain, where a fired-up Paul scored 11 points and had three steals.

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