Chris Paul fractures a finger, plans to eventually play on

Leave it to Chris Paul to make breaking your dang finger seem like no big deal.

[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

The Los Angeles Clippers All-Star point guard fractured his left index finger while scrimmaging with teammates on Saturday, knocking him out of his team’s exhibition contest with the Charlotte Hornets. The Clippers lost that game, played in Shenzhen, China, and Paul seems to hardly be bothered with the setback.

From Dan Woike at the Orange County Register:

While Paul missed the Clippers game against Charlotte in Shenzhen, China, he’s not expected to miss significant time, according to a team official. In fact, if the Clippers’ game with Charlotte had been a regular season game, Paul possibly would’ve played.

The injury occurred with Paul driving to the basket, eventually getting hit on the hand.

Paul hasn’t been ruled out of the Clippers’ game with the Hornets Wednesday in Shanghai.

[Yahoo Fantasy Basketball: Sign up for a league today]

CP3 famously made a point to play in the Clippers’ meaningless final game of the season in 2014-15, a move that meant he’d played in 82 games in a season for the first time in his 11-year career. The 30-year old rushed back from a hamstring injury during last year’s Western Conference semifinals after injuring his leg during his team’s thrilling seven-game first round win over the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, and he’s dealt with all manner of nagging maladies throughout his borderline-legendary career.

The rebuilt Clippers are expected to contend for a championship this season, and while it’s nice to get some of these unlucky scrapes and bruises out of the way in October, this is an early reminder of how fragile the team’s roster makeup is. The Clippers played well with Blake Griffin acting as a point forward of sorts with Paul out for 20 games in 2013-14, but the team cannot afford to lose its playmaker for extended stretches as they gear up for the sixth-month slog that is the NBA’s regular season.

Good thing Paul never goes left.

– – – – – – –

Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops