On April 16, Beijing time, FOX sports reporter Chris Brussard broke the news on the show, and a source told me that Kawhi Leonard's knee has been in a swollen state, and the Clippers have been worried about Leonard's knee injury, and he has not participated in any training with the team.
He said: In the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers have been blocking news that Leonard has a sprained knee, and the result is an ACL tear. This made Leonard directly absent from the 21-22 season, and in the 2023 playoffs, the Clippers officially said that Leonard had a sprained right knee, and it was not until the end of the playoffs that Leonard was officially announced that he had torn the meniscus in his left knee, and the Clippers have been lying to the outside world.
On April 12, the Clippers officially announced that Leonard's MRI was fine, and he was able to rest from April 1 to April 21, a full 20 days of rest, which was enough for him to recover.
But on April 13, in an interview, Tyronn Lue said that "I hope Leonard can play in G1 of the playoffs, everything is in order, I can't be sure." "It's clear that Leonard's injury is still so secretive.
According to statistics expert Justin Russo, in the game against the Mavericks vs Clippers this season, Doncic and Irving played together for 43 minutes +25, but when the small card and George appeared together for 26 minutes, Anton was on the court was -9, which is enough to show how important the small card is to the Clippers.
If, as Brussard said, Leonard's knee was still swollen on April 16, and he was unlikely to recover with only five days of rest, then the Clippers G1 probably didn't have Leonard.
Dream Chaser said on the podcast that Wei Shao is the X-factor of the Clippers, and he should be promoted to the start, and he can help the Clippers lock up Irving.
At present, ESPN is optimistic that the Clippers G1 will beat the Mavericks, and the probability of the Clippers winning is 56.8%.
Text/Yan Xiaobai's basketball dream