On Saturday, the Los Angeles Clippers will host the Chicago Bulls at the Crypto.com Arena. Unfortunately for the LA side, they face the daunting prospect of playing without Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Paul George, as all three superstars are on the team’s injury list ahead of the critical clash.
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Lengthy injury report for the Clippers on the first day of a back-to-back tomorrow vs Bulls. Big 3 for LA are all QUESTIONABLE:
Kawhi Leonard – left groin soreness
Paul George – left knee soreness
James Harden – left shoulder strain— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 9, 2024
Per the NBA’s injury report, Leonard is nursing a groin injury, while George is struggling with knee soreness, and Harden has a shoulder strain. All three players have been listed as questionable on the injury report. The Clippers are already without Russell Westbrook at the moment, who is out indefinitely with a fracture in his left hand, and are now sweating about the fitness of their three other stars.
Saturday’s game against the Bulls is the first of the Clippers’ back-to-back contests at home. On Sunday, they will host the Milwaukee Bucks in a rematch of their game from earlier this week, which LA lost. None of the three players suffered an in-game injury in their last game – a 122-116 win over the Houston Rockets – suggesting the team has added them to the injury list as nothing more than a precautionary measure. Nevertheless, Leonard, George, and Harden will undergo tests and will likely suit up to play against the Bulls on Saturday.
The Clippers are dark horses to finish atop the Western Conference standings
The 40-21 Clippers are fourth in the Western Conference, only three games behind leaders Oklahoma City Thunder. The race for the top spot in the Western Conference standings is now a four-horse race, with the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves also in the mix alongside OKC and the Clippers.
The Timberwolves’ odds of finishing atop the standing diminished significantly after the team announced that star forward Karl-Anthony Towns is undergoing surgery to fix a torn meniscus that will sideline him until the playoffs. Minnesota’s loss is the Clippers’ gain, as they’re now expected to leapfrog them in the standings.
With the Timberwolves realistically out of the running, the Nuggets and OKC are the only two teams standing in the Clippers’ path to securing home-field advantage in the playoffs. The Clippers’ task won’t be easy. Not only do they have to finish with the best record of the four teams in the running, but they’ll also have to go through a tough schedule to achieve it.
Strength of schedule remaining:
7. Clippers .518
12. Wolves .511
15. Thunder .473
22. Nuggets .473
Regardless of where Denver finishes, the tough schedule to begin the season/all star break may be a blessing. Allowing them to potentially roll into the postseason w/ momentum.
— rey (@givemeachance) March 8, 2024
The Clippers will face two of the three teams above them in the standings once in their remaining 21 games. They’ll host the Timberwolves on March 12th and battle the Nuggets at the Crypto.com Arena on April 4th as per NBA.com. However, they can close the gap on both teams in a big way with a win. That said, since OKC won their season series against the Clippers, they will also have to rely on other teams to knock them off the top of the standings.
The Clippers are last in the four-way race for the top spot in the Western Conference. However, there’s a path for them to secure it if everything goes swimmingly in the next five weeks.
