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Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN Staff Writer
PLAYA VISTA, Calif. — While the LA Clippers said Kawhi Leonard is questionable for Game 1 against the Dallas Mavericks, the All-Star forward’s status to start the first round remains in doubt.
Coach Ty Lue said Leonard would not go through any contact in Saturday’s practice — the team’s final rehearsal before Sunday’s Game 1 tip at 12:30 p.m. Leonard has not played since March 31 due to inflammation in his right knee.
“He shot yesterday, he was on the floor,” Lue said before the team’s practice. “Today, he will be able to shoot more with a little bit more movement. And he is going to go through some of the practice as well.”
Whenever a question was posed to Lue with the premise of the Clippers having to play Game 1 without Leonard, the head coach responded by saying that the Clippers don’t know that they will be without their star yet.
All-Star Paul George, who will have to shoulder more of the load if Leonard is unable to play, said the Clippers have been unlucky with health in the postseason. Last postseason, George missed the team’s first-round loss to Phoenix due to injury and then Leonard suffered a meniscus injury and did not play after the first two games of the five-game series.
The franchise has had just one entire postseason run with both Leonard and George healthy back in 2020.
“I think from the injury standpoint, we’ve just been unlucky,” George said. “But (we are) more so focused on (the) positive and do think at some point he’ll be with us.”
Leonard missed the final eight games of the regular season. Sunday’s Game 1 marks three weeks from the last time Leonard played.
Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, said Leonard’s surgically repaired right ACL and right meniscus are solid and structurally in place. But he characterized the inflammation as “stubborn” and “unpredictable.”
Lue said he has a replacement in mind if Leonard is unavailable for Game 1. And if that is the case, Lue said the team saw what it can do when it went 4-4 without Leonard in April, beating Denver, Cleveland and Phoenix when the Clippers needed wins to secure the fourth seed.
“He is working hard,” George said of Leonard. “This is Kawhi, he wants to be in this more than anybody and so he’s working hard, he’s doing everything he can to be available. We all see it, the work he’s putting in. When he’s ready he’ll be ready.”