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The Los Angeles Clippers are in the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, but unfortunately they’ve been forced to play in the series without their best player. Kawhi Leonard suffered a knee injury in Game 4 of the conference semifinals against the Utah Jazz and has not played since. Leonard didn’t travel to Phoenix for Games 1 and 2 of the series, and he has also been ruled out for Game 3 on Thursday night. Without Leonard, the Clippers dropped the first two games of the series and find themselves down 2-0 heading into a critical Game 3.
The Clippers had previously announced that Leonard suffered a right knee sprain that will keep him sidelined indefinitely, but the injury may be more severe than that. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Clippers fear Leonard is dealing with an ACL injury. That would be far more detrimental to the Clippers both this season and next if that’s the case.
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Leonard injured his knee after landing awkwardly on a drive to the basket during the fourth quarter of Los Angeles’ Game 4 win, which forced him to come out of the game after trying to play on it. The injury occurred with 5:25 minutes remaining in the game, when Leonard was coming down in a fast break opportunity. Jazz guard Joe Ingles intentionally fouled Leonard to stop the play, but when he bumped into him, Leonard was thrown off balance as he was trying to plant his foot. After the foul was called, Leonard immediately began hopping up and down on his left leg, and was bent over while standing and trying to stretch and massage out his right knee.
Here’s the play where the injury occurred:
The Clippers weren’t in the bonus yet, so after the foul on Ingles, they took the ball out and Jazz guard Bojan Bogdanovic fouled Leonard as he was going up for a mid-range jumper. Before taking his free throws — both of which he missed — Leonard was still stretching out his right knee, and after a few more possessions, he came out of the game with 4:35 left in the game.
After the game, when asked about his knee, Leonard was very short in his response, saying “It’s good, next question.” However, it’s clear the injury is far more serious than Leonard let on.
The Clippers were able to advance past Utah without Leonard for the final two games of the series, but he has been severely missed in the series against the Suns so far. The All-Star forward had been spectacular for Los Angeles in the playoffs and averaged 30.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 11 games.
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