For a team that has been waiting all season for show its championship mettle, the Los Angeles Clippers have concerns about the status of one of their star players. Paul George appeared to injure his right leg late in the fourth fourth quarter of a 101-100 loss to the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder Tuesday night.
After going up to secure a defensive rebound in a 91-91 game against Thunder guard Luguentz Dort with 4:40 remaining, George appeared to land awkwardly on his right leg as his knee looked like it became hyperextended. He immediately fell to the floor, grabbed his right knee and stayed down for several minutes. Ultimately, he was helped back to the locker room where he remained for the rest of the game.
Clippers coach Ty Lue didn’t have any updates on George’s status after the game, but he is expected to be evaluated on Wednesday.
You can see the play where the injury occurred below:
It certainly didn’t look great, but Los Angeles has to hope that George’s injury isn’t too serious, as an extended absence for the multi-faceted forward could very well be a death knell for the Clippers’ championship campaign.
The Clippers remain in fifth place, but the loss drops them to 38-35 and they now trail the fourth-place Phoenix Suns by two games in the loss column. Los Angeles is one game ahead of the Golden State Warriors (37-36) for the sixth spot and a game and a half up on the current top two play-in teams — the seventh-place Thunder and eighth-place Dallas Mavericks — that are both 36-36.
Before leaving the game, George tallied 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in 35 minutes. He also turned in a legitimate dunk of the year candidate with a full 360 throw down that was especially impressive given the fact that it came in the half court as opposed to in transition.
When George is healthy, he’s one of the most dynamic two-way players in the entire NBA. Unfortunately, he’s no stranger to injury issues, both this season and earlier in his career. In August of 2104, George broke two bones in his right leg while playing in a World Cup scrimmage for Team USA, but he did return to play in the final six games of the 2014-15 season. And he was limited to just 31 games last season due to an elbow injury, and he missed time with a knee injury earlier this season.
George recently said that he was finally starting to feel like himself out on the floor.
“I’m able to actually hoop,” George said after the Clippers’ March 5 win over the Grizzlies. “I had a hard time planting and pushing off for a long time. But now my body feels pretty good. So I feel like I can do things that I haven’t been able to do pretty much for the whole season.”
