The Los Angeles Clippers are in a weird position, they are now one loss away from being out of the playoffs. They have been without Kawhi Leonard for the last two games against the Suns, losing both despite big performances from Russell Westbrook.
The Los Angeles Clippers lost Paul George before the postseason began, and Kawhi Leonard picked up an injury during the series, which has been their biggest problem. And Draymond Green explained why this has happened because of the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The Lakers screwed the Clippers. How? What are you talking about?” Draymond Green said on his podcast. “Because the Lakers getting in, means LeBron James is in. LeBron James is always going to be a marquee game, Steph Curry is always going to be a marquee game. So in turn, the Clippers end up playing every other day. And you got Kawhi Leonard playing 40 minutes.
“For him to be able to play 42 minutes right now and he’s out for Game 3, sucks. Because he’s dominant. But he’s having to miss Game 3. If there’s two days in between… It’s totally different. But what you have to understand that all that stuff is based on the TV schedule. TV slots matter. So LeBron gets the TV slot, Steph Curry gets the TV slot, the Clippers were on NBA TV last night. But they playing every other day. It changes everything. It changes the series.”
Draymond Green explains how the Lakers screwed the Clippers in the playoffs pic.twitter.com/P9PY83fGgM
— dave (@nbadaves) April 23, 2023
This is an interesting insight from Draymond Green, but he’s not wrong. The Clippers have already played four games in their series, while the Lakers have played just three. Extra rest would be helpful for Kawhi Leonard, who is again struggling to stay healthy. And now the team has a mountain to climb.
The Clippers Don’t Know When Kawhi Leonard Will Return
It’s hard to know if Kawhi Leonard would have stayed fully healthy if there was more space between games, but it would have made a difference. His injury does look like a problem, though, the Clippers don’t even know when he will return.
“The Clippers are still moving day-to-day [with this injury]. What we know is that this injury is not connected to the ACL tear that he suffered two years ago. But it is the same knee. That is worrisome, and there’s no timetable as of right now. They don’t know when Kawhi is going to return. There’s hope that he could at some point, but it’s not there yet,” Chris Haynes reported.
The Phoenix Suns have too much firepower for the Clippers to do anything about without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. If Kawhi cannot return, they will likely lose the series. And while Lakers fans would have loved to beat them directly, they will be happy to have contributed just a little to the Clippers’ potential elimination.
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