Clips’ George helped off with apparent leg injury
Clippers star Paul George had to be helped off the floor Tuesday night after suffering an apparent leg injury while going…
LOS ANGELES — LA Clippers All-Star guard Paul George left Tuesday night’s 101-100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder late in the fourth quarter after suffering an apparent right leg injury.
George left Crypto.com Arena on a cart with his right leg extended. The Clippers did not offer an update on George, who nodded as he was carted toward the arena’s loading dock.
Clippers coach Ty Lue said he did not see George immediately after the game and was waiting to hear more on his star guard’s status.
“[George is] still being evaluated right now,” Lue said. “But I did see [the replay of the injury]. I didn’t even know it looked like that until [an assistant coach] just showed me, so I didn’t even know [what happened].”
As George went up for a rebound, his right knee seemed to collided with Thunder guard Luguentz Dort‘s knee, before landing awkwardly. George crumpled immediately to the floor and stayed there for several minutes.
When George got up, he needed help to walk to the locker room with 4:38 remaining in the game.
Earlier in the third quarter, George threw down a spectacular 360-degree spinning baseline dunk. He had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists before leaving the game.
“I haven’t spoken to him yet,” Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard said during his postgame news conference. “And I didn’t see the play. I thought he just got hit in the face at the time and stayed down for a while.”
“We’ll see,” Leonard added when asked how the Clippers will adjust if George is out an extended period of time. “We got a group of guys that still want to win, that like to play basketball, so we’ll see what happens.”
In August 2014, George suffered a gruesome tibia-fibula fracture to his lower right leg when his leg buckled at the base of a basket stanchion during a U.S. national team intrasquad scrimmage.
Any serious injury to George would be a devastating blow to the Clippers, who were playing some of their best basketball, winning five of six games before losing to the Thunder.
The Clippers (38-35) are currently fifth in the Western Conference with nine regular-season games remaining.
“We don’t know what is going on yet,” forward Nic Batum said. “So, we are going to have to wait. I have not seen him. I have no word yet. I hope it’s nothing serious and that he’s back soon.
“We have players and Norm [Powell] is coming back pretty soon,” Batum said of the Clippers guard, who has been out with a left shoulder injury. “We obviously miss our teammate, [but] we still got a good coach, good team. Of course, PG is a huge key for us. If we have to go through some time without him, we just have to go out there and win some games.”
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