Chris Paul Injury Will Lead to Knee Surgery and Missed Time for Point Guard

Chris Paul's knee injury has turned worse as it was revealed he needs surgery. The injury to Chris Paul's knee will require arthroscopic surgery because of a meniscus tear in his left knee. This occurred during the Hornets game against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, and then he seemed to compound that injury on Friday against the Chicago Bulls. Now after undergoing an MRI on his left knee, it turns out that Chris Paul is hurt worse than the team had feared. Now Chris Paul will be out indefinitely as he tried to have his knee "fixed," and it could really hurt the post-season aspirations of the New Orleans Hornets.

A knee injury like this is hard to predict when it comes to time that will be missed on the court. Right now the New Orleans Hornets won't even talk about a time-table for his return, possibly because they hope he will have the surgery and go through a quick rehab in order to return and get the Hornets into the 2010 NBA Playoffs. It's going to be tough if he is forced to miss any significant time as the Hornets haven't played quite as well as fans had hoped so far this season. It's also possible that this could serve to help the Hornets develop back-up point guard Darren Collison out of UCLA, who hasn't had the chance to really shine just yet. He showed on Saturday night (with Paul out) that he has something brilliant to offer, scoring 17 points and dishing out 18 assists in a starting role.

In the 2009-2010 NBA season, Chris Paul is averaging 20.4 points per game, 11.2 assists per game, and 2.3 steals per game. He has been playing very well and just was rewarded with a spot on the 2010 NBA All-Star team. An injury like this will keep him out of the all star game unfortunately, and it means that he will have to be replaced on the Western Conference team. The Hornets are going to have to come together as a team quickly because they are currently tied for the 8th playoff seed in the West with Oklahoma City. Memphis and Houston are also within a game of knocking them out of that spot. Hopefully for the Hornets, Darren Collison is up to the task.

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Chris Paul Injured

Chris Paul Stats

NBA Standings