On Friday afternoon, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue announced that superstar forwards Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are questionable to return Saturday vs. the Kings.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George will be questionable to play tomorrow vs. Sacramento, Ty Lue says. The team will wait to see how they respond from practice.
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) December 2, 2022
Norm Powell won't practice today. Luke Kennard is still out tomorrow, Lue said.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George dressed here at Clippers practice, where they will fully participate and are questionable tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/59CY1Gtbg6
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) December 2, 2022
The Clippers are three games back of first in the Western Conference. The team went 10-6 in November, with only three 13 games featuring one of their stars.
Clippers this season:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 1, 2022
— 4th in defensive rating
— 28th in offensive rating
— Kawhi out 18 games
— PG out 7 games
Still 5th in the West. pic.twitter.com/28sYDRHj5q
Los Angeles can't continue to operate without Leonard and George. When the two play together, the Clippers win 73.8 percent of games. Without them, they're a play-in team. Role players such as Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris and Norman Powell are overextending, and the team's overflow of depth isn't as dangerous without its main pieces.
More worrisome, the Clippers' championship window is shrinking. George and Leonard are both in their thirties and share a deep history of injuries -- not giving the training staff any reasons to be incautious.
Los Angeles is in year four of the Leonard-George era, and only has a Western Conference Finals appearance to show for it. Considering the team just played a whole season without Leonard and with a minimal version of George, there must be a sense of urgency for the franchise cornerstones to return.
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