Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters that All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard has officially been ruled out for the first game of L.A.’s first round playoff series against the Mavericks this afternoon, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link).
This isn’t exactly a surprise, as the prospects for Leonard’s return from right knee inflammation had looked bleak as recently as yesterday.
When healthy this season, the two-time Finals MVP has looked like the same lethal two-way powerhouse he’s been for the past decade or so. Across 68 games in 2023/24, Leonard averaged 23.7 PPG on .525/.417/.885 shooting, along with 6.1 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.6 SPG, and 0.9 BPG.
Lue did not divulge who will replace Leonard in his starting lineup, tweets Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. Veteran forward P.J. Tucker started in Leonard’s stead during the Clippers’ penultimate game of the regular season (Lue started backups in the season finale).
Mark Medina of The Sporting News reports (via Twitter) that Lue is uncertain if Leonard will be available for Game 2 on Tuesday night. In fact, it remains unclear if the 6’7″ swingman will even get the green light for contact workouts this week, according to Medina (Twitter link).
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Lue said.
The 51-31 Clippers, the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed, will host the 50-32 Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles for the first two contests of the series before it moves to Dallas. The two clubs have twice previously squared off against each other in the first round of the playoffs since Leonard joined L.A. as a free agent, in 2020 and ’21. The Clippers won both encounters.
In other injury news, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd has revealed that swingman Tim Hardaway Jr., who had been questionable to play due to an illness, will suit up, Medina tweets.
Those Suns are supposed to be knocked out in the first round last year and this year.
Last year, Suns are lucky to pass the first round playoffs.
George missed the final 14 games plus the first-round loss to Phoenix, while Leonard was shut down after Game 2 against the Suns.
That Bonercat told me he wasn’t going to miss time though…
I pick the Western Conference Finals Teams
Mavs vs Nuggets
Why?
Two best players in the nba are
Jokic
Doncic
These are damaged goods
Embiid
Leonard
George
I’m shocked – LOL
My Top 5 players in the West
Jokic
Doncic
Davis
LeBron
Durant
Lakers are supposed to win if they make a huge trade on the trade deadline.
Sheesh ……. 4 of 8 teams today without their best players – Butler, Kawhi, Giannis, Zion.
Kawhi and Zion not shocking though, it’s that time of the year.
That’s it, Kawhi Leonard out for 18 months. Quick – sign him to a contract extension.
He already signed the extension before All Star game.
Man, Raptors dodged a billet not resigning KL.
Yeah raptors are doing great… lol
Water wet
Clips steamrolling mavs atm anyway
They were working the Suns last year with only 1 main star. They can beat Mavs if PG is playing does not have to be great, Harden does well early in playoffs, Russ always brings energy.