Report: Austin Rivers and Jeff Green replacing Chris Paul, Blake Griffin for Game 5

The Los Angeles Clippers lineup and rotation was going to look a lot different following the injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Now we know exactly who will pick up the bulk of the playing time, at least in Game 5. Marc Spears of ESPN is reporting that Austin Rivers and Jeff Green will replace the fallen all stars.

Rivers has never been a full-time starter and may not be 100 percent healthy himself. Green has been a starter in the past but has been more of a sixth man in recent years. As if that wasn’t enough, J.J. Reddick is still dealing with a heel injury too.

This goes to show how quickly things can change.

With the injury to Stephen Curry, the Clippers may have thought they had a clear path to the conference finals before Monday night’s bloodletting.

They still would have been underdogs against either the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder if they made it to the conference finals. But without Curry, the path through the Golden State Warriors didn’t seem unmanageable.

Now, it will be no small accomplishment for Los Angeles to even beat the Blazers to get out of the first round.