Kawhi Leonard’s Unexpected Absence: What This Means for the Clippers’ Playoff Hopes

The Los Angeles Clippers find themselves in a bit of a slump, dropping four games straight and five of their last six — tough sledding, no doubt. On top of that, their star wing, Kawhi Leonard, is sidelined for the foreseeable future with a sprained ankle, according to coach Tyronn Lue right before they were edged out by the Suns. It’s frustrating, especially since Leonard has already missed three games and Lue’s update was pretty nebulous — the kind of injury news we’ve all gotten too used to in today’s NBA. Kawhi’s injury history casts a long shadow, having only cleared 65 games once in nine seasons, though when he’s on, he’s still a beast, dropping 24.3 points, grabbing nearly six boards, and dishing out over three assists per game this year. Oddly enough, despite his numbers, the Clippers are getting outscored when he’s on the floor — a larger reflection of their overall struggles than anything Kawhi’s doing. With home games against the Hawks and Nuggets looming — likely without Leonard — followed by a brutal seven-game road stretch, including a clash with the Lakers, the next few weeks promise to test the Clippers’ mettle. LEARN MORE

The Los Angeles Clippers, losers of four in a row and 5-of-6, will be without Kawhi Leonard for a few more games due to a sprained ankle, coach Tyronn Lue said Saturday before the Clippers went out and dropped that fourth in a row to the Suns.

“He’s gonna miss the next few games, but nothing serious, and we’ll just evaluate it from there,” Lue said, via Justin Russo at Substack.

Leonard has already missed the Clippers’ last three games. Lue’s assessment is pretty vague, but welcome to modern NBA injury reporting (the discussion of that and the league’s gambling challenges is a topic for another day). Leonard played just 37 games last season due to injuries and has cleared the 65-game threshold just once in the past nine seasons (two years ago, when he was an All-Star and second-team All-NBA player, he still has that impact when healthy).

Leonard is averaging 24.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game this season, but the Clippers are still getting outscored by 10.7 points per 100 possessions when he is on the court (which is more about struggles with the Clippers than Leonard himself).

The Clippers are home Monday (Hawks) and Wednesday (Nuggets) — games it sounds like Leonard will miss — before heading out on the road for seven straight across two weeks (one of those games is against the Lakers).