It looked bad when it happened: Jaylen Brown lost his dribble then reached out to get it back as he went to the floor, and in doing so his arm hit the Clippers’ Derrick Jones Jr. in the knee and bent it sideways. Jones had to be helped off the court.
Following an MRI, the Clippers have announced that Jones has suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain and is out, to be re-evaluated in six weeks. While not ideal, the concern around the Clippers was that this was something much worse, so there was some relief.
Jones joins Kawhi Leonard (ankle/foot sprain) and Bradley Beal (hip surgery, out for the season) as three planned starters in street clothes for Los Angeles. Tyronn Lue had to go to his seventh starting lineup through 14 games on Monday night against Philadelphia, starting two-way player Kobe Sanders in Jones’ place.
Don’t let the counting stats fool you — 10.9 points and 2.5 rebounds a game in 26 minutes a night — Jones was a key piece for the Clippers, one of their few real transition finishing options, plus one of their best man defenders.
The Clippers are 4-10 on the season but have no motivation to tank, they owe next June’s first-round pick to Oklahoma City as the last part of the Paul George trade.
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