LOS ANGELES – Every team deals with injuries as the 82-game regular season comes to a close, but to say the LA Clippers have been hit hard all season may be an understatement.
Los Angeles has been without forward Danilo Gallinari and guard Milos Teodosic for most of the season, and it'll likely end that way with just four games remaining in the regular season.
After returning from an 18-game, month-long absence with a non-displaced fracture of his right hand suffered in the team's first game after the All-Star break, Gallinari played two games against the Portland Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers, averaging just 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assist on just 26.7 percent shooting in 28.2 minutes per game.
Prior to his return, Gallinari noted multiple times that his hand was not 100 percent healed from the fracture.
“If I want to play with the hand right now, I'm going to feel pain,” said Gallinari before the Clippers faced the Suns last week. “The hand is not 100% and the fracture is healing, but it's not 100% so if I want to play, I'm going to feel pain, but the team asked me to play so I'll play.”
In his second game back against the Pacers, however, Gallinari fell hard on the hand after being fouled, which resulted in an increased amount of pain, and then later took an elbow to the back of the hand, which only worsened the pain. He finished that game shooting 1-of-9 from the field, clearly affected by the hand injury.
[“It feels] So and so, especially tonight after I fell down in the first quarter, it didn't feel good then, and then throughout the second half, I was feeling constant pain. but we're all fighting for the same goal.”
Gallinari could not tie his should with the right hand after the game, and later said the hand swelled up so much the following day to the point where even catching a pass became unbearable.
While Gallinari has already been ruled out for Thursday night's game against the Utah Jazz, he wasn't very effective in his two games back and it would be surprising to see him play again this season after this setback with his hand. As LA Times' Brad Turner noted, Gallinari has likely played his last game of the season and would finish having played just 21 games, the lowest total of his career (previous low was 28 during his rookie season with the New York Knicks).
If Gallinari is indeed done for the season, he will have finished averaging 15.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 three-pointers on career-lows from the field (39.8 percent) and from beyond the arc (32.4 percent).
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Guard Milos Teodosic suffered a tear of his plantar fascia in his left foot in the second quarter of the Clippers win over the Milwaukee Bucks on March 27th. Teodosic was evaluated and was said to be re-evaluated in two weeks. That two week mark comes after the regular season, meaning he could return for LA if they make the NBA playoffs. However, head coach Doc Rivers wasn't optimistic about Teodosic playing again in the regular season when asked if he was hopeful to see him again.
“I'm not hopeful much,” said Rivers before the Clippers took on the Pacers on Sunday afternoon. “I'm hopeful that we make the playoffs and then we can get him. I guess there's a chance he can play in a couple games before then, but with that injury, honestly, even though it says there's a chance, I don't know if I'd believe it until I see it.”
The Clippers compiled a 29-16 with Teodosic in the lineup, but even then, a lot of those games game with Danilo Gallinari, Patrick Beverley, Austin Rivers, and then-Clipper Blake Griffin also out due to injury.
“He's important,” said Rivers regarding his team's record with Teodosic playing. “I don't want to undervalue or overvalue him, a lot of those games other guys were missing too. What he does do for us is his passing, but also he spreads the floor. I think that's overlooked: his ability to shoot the ball. Even though earlier in the year, he didn't shoot the ball well, the league knew he could shoot.”
In what will likely be his final game against the Bucks, which also happened to be Serbian Heritage night at Staples Center, Teodosic put on the show for Clippers fans with a series of dazzling dimes to his Clippers teammates. Teodosic will likely finish his rookie campaign averaging 9.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.0 three-pointers per game on 38 percent shooting from beyond the arc in 45 appearances on the year.
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The LA Clippers announced that rookie guard Jawun Evans will undergo season-ending sports hernia surgery on Thursday in Philadelphia. Evans missed 18 games with a strained abdomen/groin, but returned to action in early March. After 10 games, however, he began dealing with a sore abdomen/groin again, and the team opted to have him undergo season-ending surgery.
Evans finished his first year in the NBA averaging 4.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.8 steals per game in just 16.2 minutes of action
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