L.A. Clippers guard Chris Paul missed his third straight game against the Phoenix Suns Monday night nursing a hamstring strain suffered a week-and-a-half ago against the San Antonio Spurs and is doubtful to play on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies.

In the last seven games the Clippers have played, Paul has played in just one, missing games against the Mavericks, Lakers, and Nuggets before returning to take on the Pelicans. Many thought Paul would work his way into game shape again after the short absence, but instead, Paul missed the next three games against the Rockets, Thunder, and Suns.

Before L.A. took on Phoenix on Monday night, head coach Doc Rivers spoke with the media and discussed Paul's hamstring injury.

“Chris is the same,” said Rivers. “He's getting better, but we're just going to take our time [with him].”

Paul played 31 minutes in that game against the Pelicans, finishing with 21 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. He didn't play the final minute of the game because of a minutes-restriction that team put him under after the hamstring injury. Paul was expected to continue to play, but the Clippers found something worrisome about Paul's injury the next day.

“Yeah, he was good,” said coach Doc Rivers about Chris Paul being 100% before the New Orleans game last week. “He didn't get injured more. What we didn't like is that he had fatigue, a lot of fatigue, and that next day, he was sore. That shouldn't happen. Once we found that out we decided that, though he feels good, we're going to wait even longer.”

Paul suffered an identical injury during Game 7 of the 2015 first round series against the Spurs and exited the first quarter of the game. Paul returned and finished the game with an efficient 27 points, two rebounds, six assists, and two steals. He also added five three-pointers, including a banker to end the third quarter, as well as a series-winning running bank-shot with one second left in the game. Paul missed Game 1 of the next series against the Houston Rockets, giving him three full days of rest before returning for Game 2 of that series. That was in the postseason at the beginning of May.

This injury came at the end of December and early January. It makes sense for L.A. to rest Paul until he is 100% healthy to return without having any ill effects. Paul and Griffin have each had injuries that have cost them upwards of a month of basketball over the last couple of years, so rushing to play games in early January without being 100% is far too great a risk.

Paul is listed as doubtful for Wednesday night's game against the Grizzlies, so it'll be interesting to see if anything significant changes that could allow him to make a return to the floor.