Clippers' Paul George to Be Reevaluated in 2-3 Weeks After Sprained Knee Injury
Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George was diagnosed with a sprained right knee that will cost him at least two-to-three weeks, the team announced Wednesday:
The injury will force George to miss at least the rest of the Clippers' nine remaining regular-season games, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The forward was forced to leave Tuesday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on a cart after suffering the injury:
George collided with Thunder guard Luguentz Dort and remained down on the court.
The Clippers were plus-15 in 35 minutes with George on the court on Tuesday, but they suffered a 101-100 loss to the Thunder.
Los Angeles entered Wednesday fifth in the Western Conference with a 38-35 record, only one game behind the Phoenix Suns for the fourth seed. The standings are extremely tight, however, with just 2.5 games separating the Clippers from 11th place and outside the play-in tournament.
"We'll see," Kawhi Leonard said after the game when asked how the Clippers would respond to a George absence. "We got a group of guys that still want to win, that like to play basketball, so we'll see what happens."
George earned his eighth All-Star selection this year while averaging 23.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
Leonard can pick up some of the slack when healthy, but he's only appeared in 44 of 73 games so far this season. Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon could take on bigger workloads offensively, while Nicolas Batum should see extra playing time to replace George on the wing.
