The Los Angeles Clippers had legitimate NBA championship aspirations this season. And although they were underdogs below the likes of the Warriors and Spurs, the squad had every reason to believe a title was possible. But injuries to point guard Chris Paul and power forward Blake Griffin have ended all of that. The team is currently tied 2-2 in their first round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers and face serious competition to even get past this round.

The team this season proved competitive without Griffin, but they definitely need CP3 to succeed. Losing both is a critical blow.

The one bright spot for the Clippers is that should they manage to reach the second round, they would face a Golden State Warriors squad that will be without superstar guard Stephen Curry for some of the series. (Curry will be re-evaluated in two weeks.) A healthy Clippers squad against the Warriors minus Steph would be an excellent series. But CP3 is the real engine that drives the squad. With him and Griffin out, they're in serious trouble against anybody in these playoffs.

The Clippers announced the following today:

Forward Blake Griffin will miss the remainder of the 2016 NBA Playoffs after aggravating the injury to his left quad tendon last night in Game 4. Griffin underwent an MRI this morning that revealed no further structural damage, and the five-time NBA All-Star will be ready for the start of 2016-17 training camp.

Griffin originally injured the quad on December 25th in a game against the Lakers and missed 41 games this season due to the injury.

In four playoff games, Griffin averaged 15.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists. In the regular season he averaged 21.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 35 games (all starts) for the Clippers.

Guard Chris Paul underwent surgery this morning in Los Angeles to repair a right hand fracture suffered in the third quarter of last night’s game against Portland. Dr. Steve Shin performed the operation and Paul will be out indefinitely.

In four playoff games, Paul averaged 23.8 points, 7.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals. The All-Star point guard averaged 19.5 points 10.0 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 74 regular season games (all starts) for the Clippers.