Chris Paul Probable Tonight Against Houston Rockets

Chris Paul strained his groin late in the Clippers' first loss of the season, making the 112-108 heartbreaker at Oracle Arena against the Golden State Warriors that much more painful.  The team is only calling Paul's injury a strained right groin, and nothing more serious, so I'd expect him to play given the nature of the match-up.

Houston eliminated the Clippers in the second round of the playoffs last spring, surging back from a 3-1 series deficit, including a monster comeback in the fourth quarter of game 6 in Los Angeles.  The Clippers might not hate the Rockets in the same way they hate the Warriors, but have no doubt that the team will have a chip on their shoulder when they take the court, and Paul's the type of guy who's at his best with that chip on his shoulder.

For fantasy basketball purposes, Paul should be good to go against the Rockets.  It also might be worth taking a long, hard look at Austin Rivers, who would likely start in Paul's absence and stands to gain from any potential minutes limitations on CP3.  Austin's even been playing some small forward with the second unit late in games when they need a defender, although I expect that since the Clippers use J.J. Redick on James Harden, Paul Pierce could close the game guarding Trevor Ariza.  There's also a chance that, if Paul is severely limited or ruled out, Pablo Prigioni could be inserted into the starting lineup with Rivers staying in his current role.

Neither Rivers or Prigioni is likely to give you tons of fantasy production, but both of them have really low FanDuel salaries at $3,500 each, so they could give you solid production and let you use that money elsewhere.  Rivers is probably the better bet, given his guaranteed minutes and Pablo's passive tendencies offensively.  Rivers also averaged 11 points a game in the Houston series last spring, including an explosive 25-point game where he made 10-13 from the field.

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