Clippers missing key star for Game 3
The Clippers added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in 2019 to shoot for a title. But they have to actually play in the postseason for that to happen. In what has become a trend, the Clippers will be without both stars for Game 3 against the Suns as Leonard has found his way onto the injury report.
Leonard actually injured his knee in a Game 1 win, but played through the injury in the Clippers' Game 2 loss. It's not clear when Leonard got hurt, but a Clippers reporter speculates it happened after contact with Deandre Ayton.
It's similar to the play where Leonard injured his knee in the 2021 playoffs, on an intentional take foul by Joe Ingles.
With Paul George likely to miss the entire first-round series, the Clippers are again without the players they committed over $400 million to, along with a multitude of draft picks and swaps. Leonard missed eight games in the 2021 playoffs, and both of the Clippers' play-in tournament games last season. George missed the second play-in game last year, when the New Orleans Pelicans eliminated L.A.
George and Leonard each have one year left before they can opt out of their deals - right before the Clippers move into their new arena, the Intuit dome. If they decide to leave, the Clippers will have gone all-in on a team that peaked with a conference finals appearance in 2021, where they lost 4-2. They also won't have their own first-round pick until 2027.
What will the Clippers do without Leonard, who did it on both ends in the first two games? Their best hope is what the Crypto.com Arena fans feared most when he was on the Lakers earlier this season: letting Russell Westbrook shoot.
Westbrook had 28 points in Game 2 after a 3-19 shooting performance in Game 1. But he's shown the ability to put pressure on Phoenix defenders and get to the rim for a Clippers team that really doesn't have many other playmaking options. They're also going to need him to harass Kevin Durant.
They'll have to lean heavily on Norman Powell and Terance Mann, and likely take forgotten man Robert Covington out of mothballs to join the rotation.
It's not ideal for facing the Suns, the odds-on favorite to make it out of the Western Conference, especially without Leonard's defense to make things tougher on Durant and Devin Booker. The only upside? With George and Leonard having missed a combined 266 regular season games since teaming up in L.A., their teammates have gotten used to playing without them.
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