Paul George's Injury Could Have Grave Impact On Clippers' Season

Recently being diagnosed with a right knee sprain, Paul George is unlikely to return before the end of the regular season for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Paul George was the only player from the Los Angeles Clippers named to the 2023 NBA All-Star roster this season and he has been having arguably his best season in a Clippers' uniform this year. 

Unfortunately, it appears as if George will be unable to finish the season for the Clippers, as he suffered a right knee sprain in Tuesday night's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and will be re-evaluated by the team in two to three weeks. 

Not only is this injury significant to the Clippers given George's importance on both ends of the floor, but this is an injury that could drastically change how things play out over the final two-and-a-half weeks of the regular season in the Western Conference.

Following this loss to the Thunder, the Clippers only hold a one-game lead over the Golden State Warriors for the 5-seed in the West and they are just 1.5 games ahead of the Thunder for the 7-seed, which has to play in the Play-In Tournament. 

The standings in the West are extremely tight this season and just a couple of loss could take the Clippers from the 5-seed to being out of the playoff picture entirely at the 11-spot in the conference, as they are only up 2.5 games on the 11th place Los Angeles Lakers with just nine games remaining. 

Paul George now being sidelined and out indefinitely is the worst case scenario for the Clippers at the end of the season simply because of his value. 

Without George on the floor this season, the Clippers have gone 6-11 and he has accounted for over 21 percent of the team's game-to-game scoring on average. Paul George also leads the team in scoring this season.

Los Angeles is also without their third-best scoring option in Norman Powell, who suffered a shoulder injury on March 2. The Clippers have not given any further updates on when Powell could return to the floor, but he is expected to miss at least another week.

Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook stand as the only two stars on this roster now with a handful of veteran talents in Eric Gordon, Mason Plumlee, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris Sr. and Ivica Zubac who will look to continue finding success even though Paul George will not be on the floor. 

This will be a very tall task for this Clippers team, especially given that they have one of the hardest schedules in the league to finish the year. 

Five of their remaining nine games will be at home, as they will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Los Angeles are all still fighting for their playoff lives in the Western Conference and Chicago is looking to maintain their position in the Eastern Conference standings as well. 

Their four road games will be against the Memphis Grizzlies (twice), New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns. None of these games will be easy games for the Clippers to win, as all three teams continues to battle for playoff positioning. 

This is certainly an alarming time for the Los Angeles Clippers, as a couple of mistakes could result in the missing the playoffs entirely. Once considered a top-tier team and one that could contend for a championship this season, the Clippers must now find a way to finish their final nine games of the season with a winning record to potentially make the playoffs.

Even then, there is still a scenario in which the Clippers could fall to the Play-In Tournament region of the standings and without Paul George, there is no telling what could happen. 

Los Angeles will be back in action on Thursday in what will be deemed their most important game of the season against the Thunder once again. With a loss, the Clippers could very well fall into the Play-In Tournament region of the Western Conference standings. 

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