Clippers' Kawhi Leonard to miss 'next few games' with ankle sprain
The Los Angeles Clippers, losers of four in a row and 5-of-6, will be without Kawhi Leonard for a few more games due to a sprained ankle, coach Tyronn Lue said Saturday before the Clippers went out and dropped that fourth in a row to the Suns.
“He’s gonna miss the next few games, but nothing serious, and we’ll just evaluate it from there,” Lue said, via Justin Russo at Substack.
Leonard has already missed the Clippers’ last three games. Lue’s assessment is pretty vague, but welcome to modern NBA injury reporting (the discussion of that and the league’s gambling challenges is a topic for another day). Leonard played just 37 games last season due to injuries and has cleared the 65-game threshold just once in the past nine seasons (two years ago, when he was an All-Star and second-team All-NBA player, he still has that impact when healthy).
Leonard is averaging 24.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game this season, but the Clippers are still getting outscored by 10.7 points per 100 possessions when he is on the court (which is more about struggles with the Clippers than Leonard himself).
The Clippers are home Monday (Hawks) and Wednesday (Nuggets) — games it sounds like Leonard will miss — before heading out on the road for seven straight across two weeks (one of those games is against the Lakers).