On April 16, 2022, the NBA playoffs continued to play. After losing the last game to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Los Angeles Clippers faced a showdown against the New Orleans Pelicans. In regular season meetings, the New Orleans Pelicans won 3 and lost 1. Even if the Los Angeles Clippers have a better regular season record, the Clippers don't have a very obvious advantage against the Pelicans, but need to be extremely careful. Unexpectedly, before this crucial game about whether it can enter the playoffs, the Clippers have two bad news in succession.
The first bad news is that Paul George will be absent from this crucial battle. According to THE US media ESPN, Clippers player Paul George triggered a health and safety agreement and will miss today's game against the Pelicans, and George has already developed some symptoms. Subsequently, Shams, a well-known journalist of the NBA, also confirmed the news. Subsequently, Frank, the Clippers' president of operations, said in an interview that the team knew about George yesterday. It was rare that George could make a comeback at the end of the regular season, but he did not expect to trigger the safety agreement before this crucial battle and directly miss the game. Not beating the Timberwolves in the last game was a shame. This one is going to be tougher.
The second piece of bad news is that Clippers guard Luke Kennard is likely to be unable to make a comeback. In the last game, Kennard was unable to play due to a tendon injury. And today the Clippers announced that Kennard was listed as a suspect. From this point of view, Kennard's injury has not fully recovered. And this is undoubtedly worse for the Clippers, which are already missing George. Kennard has averaged 11.9 points, three rebounds and 2.1 assists this season, shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 44.9 percent from three-point range, averaging 2.7 three-pointers per game. Kennard's three-point shooting percentage is as high as the league's first, and he is the Clippers' number one shooter this season. If Kennard doesn't fully recover from his injury, he may not be able to play at his best, even if he can play.
Faced with such a dilemma, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyrone Lue said: "We have no way back, we must work together and use this game as a seven-game game." "Although Tyronn Lu has proven his coaching ability this season, leading the Clippers to such a record in the absence of a major general. It can be said that the lack of George and Leonard is already commonplace for Director Lou. But after all, this is a playoff playoff, and it is also a decisive battle, and the intensity is not comparable to the regular season. Even if Lu Is good at facing adversity, it will probably be a headache to encounter this situation before the decisive battle. Today's Clippers can only fight a battle, and the players on the team need to stand up as much as possible to help the team. Reggie Jackson, who played erratically in the last game, can no longer drop the chain. Do you think the Clippers can win today?