Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers will be tipping off their first round playoff series against Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns, but they'll have to do it without Paul George.

Ahead of Sunday's Game 1, the Clippers have ruled Paul George out with a right knee sprain. George has been out since suffering the injury on March 21st against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and there has been no indication that he's nearing a return.

George is, however, slowly progressing to the point where he's taking standstill jumpers from all over the court.

“Yeah, it's encouraging to see, especially after the nasty blow that he took,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of George before Friday's practice in Los Angeles. “We thought it could be a lot worse than what it was. So just seeing him be able to do some things and actually starting to feel better, that's good to see because you don't want to see your players get hurt and get injured, and it could have been a lot worse than what it was.”

Despite the positive signs, Tyronn Lue reiterated that the Clippers remain focused getting Paul George as close to 100 percent as possible without risking re-injury.

“We're definitely not going to do anything to hurt PG,” Tyronn Lue responded when asked when or if he could return. “Even if he does try to come back and he's not right, we're not going to let him go because we're not going to let him injure himself and make it worse than what it really is. When he comes back, we'll make sure he's close to 100 percent without being able to injure himself even more.”

The Clippers and Suns will play every other day until Game 5. Their first two-day break will come between Games 4 and 5, and LA has been operating under the assumption that they'll need to get out of the first round in order to see Paul George return. While a return in the first round appears unlikely, it's not entirely impossible. Over the last week, George had been going through upper-body workouts while undergoing mobility and flexion workouts with the injured right knee.

Without George in the regular season, the Clippers have started Eric Gordon in his place, and he's expected to start Game 1 as well.

The Suns have released their injury report for Game 1, which has Cameron Payne listed as ‘Questionable' with lower back soreness. Kevin Durant and the rest of the squad is healthy and expected to suit up Sunday.

In his recent episode of, ‘Podcast P with Paul George,' the Clippers star said he's making progress, but does not have a timetable to return just yet.

“The leg is good man, I’m making progress,” Clippers star Paul George explained. “I don’t know how soon. But nah man, I’ve been feeling better. I’ve been working my butt off. I’ve been grinding literally every day. Six days out of the week I’m training, I’m doing rehab. So I’m gonna give it every chance I got. It’s coming down to the wire.

“I’m just stationary shooting, just testing it out seeing if I can jump on it, push off on it, stuff like that… I was gonna play around with the media & be like, ‘Yo, T-Lue who I got? What’s my matchup?' Just enjoying being on the court again. I was happy.”

Game 1 against Kevin Durant and the Suns will tip off Sunday at 5PM PST.