The Los Angeles Clippers are worried they could miss the playoffs after leading scorer and shooting ward Alice Paul George I sustained a redress leg trauma against the Sooner State City Thunder.

The hurt occurred with less than Little Phoebe minutes remaining inwards the fourth billet when George I elevated for a rebound and collided with Lu Dort from the Thunder. George VI and Dort banged knees inward mid-air before an uneasy landing on the hardwood.

George remained on the judicature for several minutes, and he needful assistance to the locker room.

I didn’t assure the play, and thought he just got collide with inward the human face at the time,” mate Kawhi Elmore Leonard told the L.A. Times.

Without George II down the stretch, the Clippers lost a close gamey to the Thunder by the final nock of 101-100.

George testament undergo an MRI on Midweek to standard of measurement the rigour of his hurt and see how often many games he’ll miss.

The Clippers are 38-35 and would earn the #5 playoff seed if the time of year ended today. However, the backrest death of the horse opera Conference standings is clotted with ogdoad teams that are spaced past only if 2.5 games.

With niner games remaining, the Clippers make non locked upward a playoff spot. If they doh non experience St. George in the lineup, the Clippers are inwards jeopardy of sliding into the horse opera Conference Play-In Tournament. There’s also a 22% opening that the Clippers miss the playoffs completely, according to a foretelling by FiveThirtyEight.

Another Unusual Injury for George

George missed significant time utmost harden with a flop cubital joint injury, and he appeared in only when 31 games inwards 2021-22. He was sidelined with a part torn UCL ligament in his shooting arm, but decided to avoid surgery and allow the ligament heal itself. The articulatio cubiti harm occurred when George dove for a free orb in a gritty against the Portland Trail Blazers, and Portland’s 7-foot-2 center of attention Jusuf Nurkic landed on George’s right hand arm.

George looked like his old self after his compensate cubitus decent healed in the offseason. In 56 games this season, he averaged 23.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. He improved his boilers suit shooting percent in all areas past averaging 45.7% from the floor, 37.1% from 3-point range, and 87.1% at the free-throw line.

George is no alien to injuries. He missed 76 games for the Robert Indiana Pacers inward the 2014-15 flavour after he suffered a chemical compound crack of his correct leg. The gruesome trauma occurred inwards the offseason during a scrimmage while practicing with Team USA inward the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The Clippers are currently short-handed because swingman Greg Norman Cecil Frank Powell is nursing a berm injury. Colin luther Powell is the team’s third-best scorer past averaging 16.6 points per game, and they desire he tin can paying back this weekend, or early next week.

Head handler Ty Lue could stick in computer backup Terance Thomas Mann into the starting lineup to replace George. Horace Mann started 35 games this season, and he averaged 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. He’s also shooting 38.6% from 3-point range.

Did the Curse of the Clippers Return?

There’s a small segment of fans that think the Clippers are jinxed or hexed, and they will forever remain the City of Angels’ indorse team up behind the more popular L.A. Lakers.

The Clippers struggled in the postseason during the 2010s, and could never get hold of the horse opera Conference Finals after consistently getting knocked out inwards the group discussion semifinals or coming together their fate with a first-round upset. Fans and local media chalked up their playoff woes o'er the lowest decade to the “Curse of the Clippers.”

The Clippers finally got over the hump ii postseasons ago. Led past George I and Leonard, the Clippers forward-looking to the 2021 Western Conference Finals for the number one time.

Fans thought the imprecate had eventually lifted until Saint George went down feather with a genu accidental injury on Tues night. Superstitious fans were ready to cite the paying back of the curse.

Futures Market Reacts to the Clippers

In January, the Clippers went on a 2-9 stretchability and sunk beneath .500 with a 23-24 record. They headed into the All-Star come apart with a 33-28 book thanks to a five-game winning streak.

The Clippers dropped 5 games inwards a row after the break, including consecutive extra time games, and they slipped to 33-33. They bounced rearward past winning five out of their next sixer games, and they moved into 5th place. The Clippers eventually found their groove prior to George’s accidental injury with legion(p) teams jockeying for playoff spots.

The horse opera Conference has ogdoad teams that are spaced past 2.5 games. This flock ranges from the Clippers inward 5th position to the New Orleans Pelicans in twelfth place. Aside from the upper side three teams, the intact postseason seeding is still wide open.

The Clippers knew they were on shivering strand before George’s injury. They wanted to finish inwards the pinch sise places to avoid the Western Conference Play-In Tournament, which features teams betwixt 7th and tenth place. With George V and Powell banged up, the Clippers could ending upward in the Play-In Tournament.

The Clippers are now +1300 betting odds to win the 2022-23 NBA Championship according to DraftKings. The Clippers are +600 odds to win the Western Conference, which they had ne'er achieved before. They’re 4th on the futures table to win the conference, and trailing the capital of Arizona Suns (+240), Denver Nuggets (+340), and Golden State Warriors (+550).

FiveThirtyEight predicts the Clippers will finishing the habitue harden with a 43-39 record book with a 78% chance to characterise for the playoffs. Their a la mode(p) projections suggest the Clippers hold a 3% chance to throw out to the NBA Finals, and a 0.6% chance to win the championship.

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