Clippers news: LA dealing with no injuries heading into Lakers matchup

The Clippers have been dealing with injuries to Danilo Gallinari, Patrick Beverley, Sam Dekker, & Austin Rivers. That left DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin

Having dealt with a number of injuries in the preseason alone, the LA Clippers are ready to take on the regular season on Thursday night against their hallway rival Los Angeles Lakers.

On Wednesday, the Clippers released their injury report which had no players listed with any injuries. That came as good news for a team that saw as many as four rotation players, including two starters, dealing with nagging injuries throughout the preseason. One of the many guys happy the squad is finally whole again is head coach Doc Rivers.

“It just helps rotationally,” said Rivers before Wednesday's practice. “It's nice to put different groups out on the floor. We've done very little stuff with Blake at the five, but that's something we're definitely gonna do during the season.”

“I think we've played like four minutes with Blake at the five, and we know we're going to do a lot of that during the season. We're going to do a bit of that today [in practice]. It's just nice having guys healthy.”

Austin Rivers fought back from a bout with mono to play in the preseason opener on October 1st, but missed every game and practice that followed over the next two weeks with a glute strain. Danilo Gallinari suffered a strained foot during one of the two games LA played in Hawaii, which held him out for the remainder of the preseason. Sam Dekker also suffered an oblique strain in the second Hawaii game that kept him out the rest of the preseason. Patrick Beverley came away from the Blazers matchup midway through the preseason with a sore knee, keeping him out for a week.

Fortunately for the Clippers, all returned to practice on Sunday, and all were able to participate in the four practice sessions the team held this week before opening up their season against the Lakers.

With his team finally at 100%, Rivers says he plans to have his rotations include Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, or Danilo Gallinari out on the floor at all times.

“[Our rotation] will probably be nine. Nine or 10 guys tops. We kind of was DJ, Blake, or Gallo on the floor at all times. We'll sub one of those three early. With our guards, we kind of want certain combinations on the floor, we want to avoid a couple combinations too.”