LA Clippers All-Star guard Paul George will miss at least the next two weeks with a sprained right knee, the team announced Wednesday.
George will be reevaluated in two to three weeks and is expected to miss the remaining nine regular-season games the Clippers have left. George’s timeline for a potential return in the playoffs will be clearer once he is reevaluated, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Clippers guard was injured after he landed awkwardly after colliding knee-to-knee with Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ 101-100 loss on Tuesday night.
George’s right knee appeared to bend backward and he needed help to walk off the court after several minutes down on the floor. George was later carried off by two staffers in the tunnel to the locker room.
The All-Star guard left Crypto.com Arena late Tuesday night on the back of a cart with his right leg extended. He nodded on his way out.
The Clippers and George had begun to play some of their best basketball since acquiring several new pieces like Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon and Mason Plumlee in February. They won five of six games entering Tuesday’s night’s game against Oklahoma City and George was feeling healthier after dealing with a right knee issue.
George looked as explosive as he has all season, throwing down two highlight dunks, including a spectacular spinning dunk on the baseline in the third quarter.
The All-Star guard injured his knee with 4:38 remaining. Several staffers, executives and players looking very concerned after the loss. In August 2014, George suffered a gruesome tibia-fibula fracture to his lower right leg when his leg landed and buckled at the base of a basket stanchion during a U.S. national team intrasquad scrimmage.
The Clippers have a rematch against Oklahoma City at home on Thursday. With nine games remaining in the regular season, the Clippers will try to stay in the top six of the Western Conference playoff standings and out of the play-in.
However, the Clippers do have two back-to-back sets of games remaining, and Kawhi Leonard has sat out one game during back-to-backs as part of the team’s health plan for the franchise forward.
“Next man up,” Leonard said on Tuesday night when asked if George has to miss time. “We’ll see. We got a group of guys that still want to win, that like to play basketball, so we’ll see what happens.”
The Clippers could get some help soon with Norman Powell recovering from a left shoulder subluxation injury. He has missed eight straight games but has been working out.
“We have players and Norm is coming back pretty soon,” forward Nic Batum said on Tuesday night. “We obviously miss our teammate, [but] we still got a good coach, good team. Of course, PG is a huge key for us. If we have to go through some time without him, we just have to go out there and win some games.”