Clippers’ Raymond Felton keeps battling through aches and pain

Reporting from Toronto —  His body is beat up from top to bottom, but Raymond Felton has refused to sit out a game for the Clippers.

Felton has a sore right shoulder that he wears a small pad on for protection. He has a sore thigh that has forced him to wear extra padding beneath his game shorts for body protection.

Felton was back in the starting lineup Monday night against the Toronto Raptors.

“It’s all about mental strength and just letting it be,” Felton said. “I deal with it afterwards. I’m not really worried about the pain. I can tolerate it, but I’m not just really worried about it.”

Felton played 36 minutes 1 second and had seven points, six assists and six rebounds against the Raptors.

It was another game in which he pushed his body to play.

“I got to, man,” Felton said. “I’m not 100% healthy, but I got to though. It is what it is.”

With starting point guard Chris Paul out after having surgery to repair a ligament in his left thumb, Felton has been forced to play more minutes.

Felton admitted that if Paul was playing the he would have “taken a game or two off.”

“But I want to be out there though,” Felton said. “But, yeah, I have to be out there too.”

To stay ready for games, Felton said he gets treatment “once or twice a day.”

“I just go with it,” Felton said.

And despite all that ails him, Felton plays hard all the time.

He even picks up full court, applying pressure to the opponent’s point guard.

“I’ve got to be who I am no matter what,” Felton said. “When I put that jersey on, I’ve got to be who I am.”

Paul making strides

Each week, each day actually, Paul has made improvements with his injury.

But he’s still not close to returning after he had surgery on Jan.18 and was given a recovery timetable of six to eight weeks.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said that Paul is doing shooting drills, running and offensive drills.

“He’s doing everything,” Rivers said. “He can’t take contact, but he’s playing. Like if you watched him, you’d say why isn’t he playing tonight? But obviously his hand couldn’t sustain a hit yet.

“But if there is any silver lining to getting injured, it’s nice when you get injured and it’s not leg or feet, where you can run and shoot and do all this stuff. And he’s able to do that.”

Rivers was asked if there has been any change in Paul’s return.

“I think they said six to eight and I don’t think that’s been improved,” Rivers said. “But I don’t check.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner