After suiting up for the Los Angeles Clippers for Games 2 and 3, Kawhi Leonard was unable to play on Sunday in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks. The six-time All-Star was ruled out due to inflammation in his surgically repaired knee, which was also the culprit behind his Game 1 absence.
To make matters worse, Leonard has no timetable to return after being ruled out indefinitely by the team.
Los Angeles Clippers News: Kawhi Leonard ‘Devastated’ by Injury News
Apparently, Leonard not playing on Sunday was an “organizational decision” made by the Clippers. The team is obviously looking out for the long-term future of their superstar forward here, and they deemed that it was not worth taking the risk to let him play on Sunday amid fear of the 32-year-old potentially making the injury worse.
Thankfully, the Clippers still managed to pull off a huge win on Sunday without Leonard. After their 116-111 victory to tie the series at 2-2, LA head coach Ty Lue revealed that Kawhi has been left “devastated” by these developments:
Leonard isn’t exactly the most emotional player out there, so for him to feel so strongly about this injury setback speaks volumes.
James Harden, Paul George Save the Day
Thankfully for the Clippers, they had two other superstars to rely on on Sunday despite not having Kawhi in the picture. Both James Harden and Paul George stepped up in a major way, scoring 33 points apiece as they took down the Mavs.
LA was actually up by as many as 31 points in this one only for Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the rest of the Mavs to mount an improbable comeback attempt. Dallas came close to stealing this one away, but George and Harden made sure that this was not going to be the case.
We’re now down to a best-of-three series as we head back to LA for Game 5 on Wednesday.
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