When Blake Griffin stayed down on the ground after suffering an apparent leg injury at home, the rowdy fans inside Staples Center watching their LA Clippers make a comeback gasped and came to a quiet murmur. Griffin tried to walk it off, which likely brought some relief, but anybody close enough to the action could see a worried look on Griffin as he put his hand on his face and walked back into the locker room; ‘please, not again,' likely on everybody's minds.
The following day, the Clippers received news that MRI results showed the star power forward suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee. The severity of the injury will result in Griffin missing up to eight weeks of action, which will further deplete the Clippers moving forward.
While this news was devastating for the organization and fanbase to hear, there was an optimism around Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers, and Griffin, following the MRI results.
“He was not as disappointed…,” Rivers told reporters before Wednesday's practice. “Honestly, we thought it could be worse so relatively speaking. He was not happy that he's missing games, but he was pretty upbeat. There's no structural damage, nothing. The problem is it just takes time to heal. There was a lot of good news in that, as crazy as that sounds. It was better news than I thought after watching it.”
There was fear Griffin would be out for months or even for the entire season based on how the injury looked both in real-time and in slow-motion replay. Fortunately for him, there were no tears or fractures, and he should only miss about a month-and-a-half to two months.
“[Out for] 6-8 weeks is better than [out for] the season,” added Rivers. “I'll tell you what, Patrick Beverley would trade with him right now.”
Unfortunately for the Clippers, however, they'll have to carry on their season without four-fifths of their starting unit at least for the next week or two. Rivers added that both Danilo Gallinari and Milos Teodosic are close to a return, but haven't done five-on-five drills yet.
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