What Lou Williams' 10-Day Quarantine Means for the LA Clippers
The NBA has reportedly finished up its investigation into Lou Williams, and the LA Clippers guard is now facing a 10-day quarantine for visiting a gentlemen's club while out of the Orlando bubble, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.
Williams will miss the team's first two seeding games — meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans — as a result.
The star reserve was excused to leave campus earlier in the week to tend to a family emergency. Williams did attend a funeral while in Atlanta, but also confirmed to the league that he stopped by the Magic City gentlemen's club for some food — an action he was not permitted to do.
He arrived back in the bubble on Saturday and immediately started his quarantine, but it'll be a while before Clippers fans see him back on the court. The next game he's eligible to perform in isn't scheduled to take place until Tuesday, Aug. 4, against the Phoenix Suns.
Williams is a significant part of this year's Clippers team, so the absence will sting. The 33-year-old guard is averaging 18.7 points and a career-high 5.7 assists in 29.3 minutes per game and is a front-runner for this year's Sixth Man of the Year award.
That said, the Clippers have the personnel to make do without Williams for those first few games. Reggie Jackson, a play-making point guard that's been red-hot from the field could see an increase in minutes in his absence, while guys like Terance Mann, Amir Coffey or Rodney McGruder could get spot minutes to make up the remaining difference.
LA has been particularly short-handed as of late, as Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet did not participate in Saturday's scrimmage for various reasons. Harrell and Beverley have been dealing with their own family matters, while Zubac and Shamet are en route to Orlando for the first time.
Williams' quarantine may hurt the Clippers in the short-term, but the crafty guard will still be able to participate in a majority of the team's seeding games and will ultimately be good to go for the postseason as well.
