Clippers star Paul George practiced with the team on Thursday for the first time since he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. George hasn’t played in a game since December 22.
George is listed as out for Friday’s game against Philadelphia and there’s no official timetable for his return, but he’s clearly making progress as he recovers from the injury.
“He is doing good,” coach Tyronn Lue said prior to Thursday’s practice. “He hasn’t felt any pain so that is a positive thing. Just working on his conditioning and just making sure he can continue to go through the minimal contact without having any issue. So as of right now, it hasn’t been a problem.”
Lue also said that Norman Powell has begun shooting on the court with the team, but is still limited to non-contact work. Powell broke a bone in his left foot after just three games with his new club. He was acquired in a trade with the Blazers ahead of the February deadline.
At 36-38, the Clippers are currently the No. 8 seed in the West. Despite losing four straight games, their place in the standings is pretty secure, as they trail the No. 7 Timberwolves by six games and hold a four-and-a-half game lead on the No. 9 Lakers with only eight games remaining.
Youngmisuk states that the Clippers hope to reduce the minutes for veterans Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris, and Reggie Jackson ahead of the play-in tournament.
Very possible & very important for them to beat Minnesota & get that 7seed. They played Phoenix tough without Kawhi last yr in the WCF but they got a much better chance vs Memphis/GSW than Phx imo. That LAC@Min play-in matchup is gonna be extremely interesting, even moreso now that PG will be there. How Lue chooses to try to contain KAT is gonna be extremely important in that 1
I think they will miss Ibaka in situations like these, but it’s also just gravy at this pt. No one was expecting much after the injuries. Kudos to Lue for keeping the team in it vs. tossing the season.
Ibaka def would have helped a bit. Kawhi would help way more. If he can play that’s a game changer fr
S.- If you mean RS: foolish— 6-game difference. If you mean playoffs, then still foolish in a different way— they will already be trying to win regardless in what amounts to a single-game series. What difference does “really important” make? You use big words thinking they make your point, but they take the place of reasoning or facts.
And that anybody has a beter chance than PHX vs GSW or MEM is pretty radical given their records, and needs some support. I have not looked, but RS head-to-heads do not usually playoff results very reliably.
Lol what big words did I use? Minnesota? Interesting?
I don’t know what your definition of “very possible” is, but there’s a very, very low probability of the Clippers overtaking the Wolves. Six games back with only eight games left, none of which are head-to-head, is about as insurmountable as it gets. You’d need 2-6 from the Wolves and 6-2 from the Clippers. Wolves have games against the Spurs, Wizards, and Rockets while the Clippers have to play the Suns, Sixers, Jazz, Bucks, and Bulls. They’ve also lost 7 of their last 9.
That clippers can get the seventh seed in the play in, pretty sure that’s what Sankara was referring too. They’re obviously not catching them in the regular season