On the eve of yet another rebuilding season, the Los Angeles Clippers revealed on Monday night that Blake Griffin's knee injury was far more serious than initially feared: he's been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left kneecap (the patella, to be precise) and could be sidelined up to six weeks. He suffered the injury in the team's final preseason game.
The timing of the announcement is a bit curious -- and potentially embarrassing for the Clippers' training staff. Earlier in the day following Monday's practice, Mike Dunleavy told reporters that Griffin merely had a bone bruise, but added that Griffin was seeking a second opinion. Presumably, it's the second opinion that revealed the more serious ailment.
While the timing certainly puts a black cloud over the team before the season even starts, the silver lining is that the injury was discovered now, before Griffin had a chance to cause further harm by playing through the pain. In the meantime, figuring out the rotation just got easier: Kevin Arnovitz of ClipperBlog predicts DeAndre Jordan to pick up more playing time, with Al Thornton and Rasual Butler also seeing more time together.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Already????? Well, now the Clippers have this year's excuse to suck!...
I don't even know what to say. Horrible.
-Lu Galasso
What a snake bitten franchise. Sterling must have some really bad karma.
calm down guys...hes not gonna hav tht big of an impact anyway still throwin out a startin 5 with baron davis eric gordon al thornton chris kaman and marcus camby aint to shabby..then u got bassy telfair off the bench with craig smith...is no to big of n injury calm down
He's officially a Clipper.
Can't wait to see the newest Championship banner hung tonite.
Are the Clippers even responsible for hanging a poster in Staples?
Even the Sparks have a couple of Championship banners.
Regardless of the injury to BG, this could be the year for the Clippers.
They still have Baron Davis, who is coming off a bad year and always plays out of his mind after a bad year.
Eric Gordon and Al Thornton are still two of the best young offensive players in the league right now. They can always put up points on the board.
Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby are two very good centers in a league where most teams don't even have one. Regardless of the playing time issues, not knowing which of your two centers will start because both are good is a pretty great problem to have.
The Clippers bench, with the addition of Sebastian Telfair and Craig Smith, is now the strongest bench in the NBA. They have players that can step in for the marquee starters (Thornton, Gordon, Davis) and pick right up where the starters left off.
And it's better that BG be injured now than at the end of the year. It would suck for him to miss the playoffs, because with this roster, they're going, and once BG gets healthy, they can make a deep run. Perhaps, dare I say, even a trip to the Finals.
The finals this year, the Clippers? The final game of the regular season will probably be their final game this season, though they have made the playoffs in the past. And for the next month or two they shouldn`t have to worry much about which center starts, they should probably start both. If Griffith recovers well, in a month or two, they can start wondering which starting center`s job he might take. The Clippers score plenty. But they don`t play defnese, and Griffith didn`t figure to correct that as a rookie. If they start playing D, maybe they`ll make the playoffs, but don`t hold your breath waiting for them to play D, probably won`t happen this season.
Can't fire Dunleavy...He is the GM...GM has to fire the coach...He won't fire himself. Last year all these guys were injured. Clippers won 19 games. This season they are all back and healthy...Clippers are 0-4. Blake or no Blake when Dunleavy goes Clippers will win.
Dunleavy is the reason this team consistently performs lousy after half time.
Dunleavy is the reason they suck.
The owner can fire the GM and/or Coach, but while the Clippers are losing games, they aren`t trying to pay Knicks style huge salaries, so their finances are okay. And the Clippers have been very inconsistent lately, making and not making the playoffs. Lousy "defense". May turn out to have a decent record this season, but are 0 for the season so far. Cleveland started off 0 for 2, but now they are 2/2. I`m don`t blame Dunleavy for the poor start. His best player, "Randy Dolph" Randolph, center/forward, was dealt off, basically for a reserve point guard, cost cutting, despite Nba regulations allegedly trying to prevent such uneven trades. They should have at least gotten Jaric back, not just Richardson back, and so had to deal him off again. I blame Dunleavy for the poor D last season, etc.