Kawhi Leonard has missed the last three games for the Los Angeles Clippers with an ankle injury, and his stay on the sideline is going to extend a little longer. According to Clippers coach Ty Lue, Leonard is going to miss the next few games as he continues to recover, though Lue stressed that the injury wasn’t necessarily serious.
“He’s gonna miss the next few games, but nothing serious, and we’ll just evaluate it from there,” Lue said.
Obviously, this is a pretty vague update from Lue, but that’s just the way it goes with Leonard, who is certainly no stranger to spending time on the sideline. He was limited to just 37 games last season, and has appeared in 60-plus games in a season just once as a member during his tenure in L.A.
The fact that Lue said that the injury isn’t serious is good news at least, because the Clippers can’t afford to be without their best player for too long. Leonard is leading the Clippers in points (24.3) and steals (2.5) per game on the season.
The Clippers have lost four straight games, including all three games that Leonard has missed, and they’ve started the season with just three wins in their first nine games. As a result, they currently sit 13th in the Western Conference standings. Sure, it’s still early, but as a team with playoff aspirations, that’s not where you want to be.
Luckily, L.A.’s upcoming schedule includes some winnable games. Their next four contests come against Atlanta, Denver, Dallas and Boston. Out of those teams, the Nuggets are the only one with a winning record on the season.
It remains to be seen how many of those games Leonard will miss, but there’s a chance he could miss all of them. So, the Clippers will have to find a way to pull out a win without Leonard, something they’ve been unable to do thus far.