UPDATE (3:10 p.m. ET): The knee injury Blake Griffin sustained Monday night reportedly could sideline the Los Angeles Clippers star for two months.
ORIGINAL STORY: The injury bug always seems to find Blake Griffin.
The Los Angeles Clippers forward has missed 15 games or more in each of the last three seasons, and there’s a chance that streak might continue after Monday night’s developments.
Griffin was grappling with Lonzo Ball for a loose ball late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ eventual win over the Los Angeles Lakers when teammate Austin Rivers rolled up on his left knee, causing it to bend awkwardly.
Griffin remained on the floor clutching his leg — the same leg on which he suffered a broken kneecap during the 2009-10 season — before exiting the game for good.
There’s no word yet on the severity of Griffin’s injury, as he’ll undergo further testing Tuesday. But the five-time All-Star doesn’t seem optimistic, according to Clippers coach Doc Rivers.
“He’s not in high spirits. He’s down,” Rivers said after the game, via NBA.com. “Right now, he’s where we are at, hoping that it was just a bang and then it hurt and then he’ll be all right. But his spirits are down right now, yeah. It didn’t look good. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The Clippers are 8-11 entering Tuesday and could ill afford to lose Griffin, who leads the team in points (23.6 per game) and assists (5.1 per game), for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, though, L.A. is used to dealing with life without Blake.
