LOS ANGELES — Tuesday, May 2 marked six weeks since Paul George suffered his a gruesome-looking knee sprain. The Los Angeles Clippers star got injured March 21 but was hopeful to make a return at some point in the NBA postseason. Unfortunately for George, that time never came thanks to the Phoenix Suns.

The Clippers were eliminated from playoff contention on April 25, at the five-week mark of George's recovery from the sprained right knee. George had been targeting a return at some point in the postseason, and most of the buzz surrounding George had the return coming in the second round.

Many Clippers fans expressed frustrations with George and the franchise for him not playing through his injury in, at the very least, an elimination Game 5 in Phoenix. After all, what do you really have to lose if you're eliminated? Well, the answer is quite a lot.

George didn't sustain any significant damage to the major ligaments in his injured knee on the play where he was going for a rebound with Thunder guard Luguentz Dort. It was considered a sigh of relief for George and the organization, but a long recovery was still in his future. It wasn't made public at the time, but George was in line for at least a six-week absence with the injury.

“The timetable minimum for this injury is about six weeks,” Clippers star Paul George told ClutchPoints of his injury. “The six week mark was the earliest.”

George was hopeful that his Clippers, who had kept every playoff game against the Suns tight, would be able to extend the series and give him a chance at returning. Unfortunately, Game 5 ended up being the final game of the series, with the Suns advancing to face the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles going home.

So why didn't George try to play in Game 5 facing elimination versus the Suns?

“It's been a challenge,” George added. “I know it looked from the naked eye that I look pretty healthy and strong, but there's some limitations and there's some scares from the standpoint of getting hit the wrong way or coming down wrong. There's still a little soreness and limitations there, so I'm working through that.”

The band around George's chest that everyone wondered about was a heart-rate monitor. The Clippers wanted to replicate game-level heart rate and identical fatigue levels to see how George would respond in those scenarios.

As great as George looked in controlled, one-on-none workouts, that's a far-cry from being able to return to high-intensity, game-speed action. George himself said it best: Those workouts were controlled and games are completely uncontrolled. Anything can happen and affect the knee. Any movement, any hit to the knee, any awkward landing, anything can result in re-injury. Not only are the limitations extremely concerning, but not being mentally confident in movements can very easily result in overcompensation and re-injury.

“That's always a concern. It's a huge risk. Because again, the six week mark was the earliest, that was just being super aggressive, six week mark for the injury that I had. So there's a huge concern or a huge risk coming back too soon. Again, it's the reason why I said it might look good that I'm able to play, but there is some limitations that I know there's been some soreness from playing and rebuilding that muscle memory stuff again.”

The time of players playing through injuries, especially ones that could cause significant damage, is over and with good reason.

Isaiah Thomas famously played through a hip injury for the Celtics in the 2017 playoffs as a free agent-to-be. Once that run was cut short, Boston did the injured Thomas dirty in my opinion, not paying him and trading him away.

Kevin Durant returned from a month-long absence due to a right calf strain, an injury players typically do not meddle with for serious risk of re-injury, for Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals. With his team down 3-1, Durant played 11 minutes before fully rupturing his Achilles tendon on a normal crossover and drive. Durant would obviously miss the rest of the Finals as well as the entire 2019-20 season with the Brooklyn Nets.

The Clippers are usually secretive about injuries to players. There's no telling exactly what Paul George, who was only ever listed as out with a “knee sprain,” may have been dealing with that required a six-week recovery timetable. The team, knowing Kawhi Leonard suffered a torn meniscus before Game 3, told members of the media that Leonard was dealing with a knee sprain until their season was over.

Even if George returned from his injury for Game 5 versus the Suns, he would have had to lead a Clippers team he hadn't played with in five weeks and done it without Kawhi Leonard. Despite not putting it out there, the Clippers knew Leonard was done for the postseason. Once you know that, what is the point in bringing George back early when he, himself, is not even ready?

There was no point in bringing George back, and anyone who actually wanted him to ‘give it a go' despite not being medically cleared obviously doesn't have his long-term future in mind. The Clippers were in for a tough series with Leonard and they would've had an extremely hard time beating the Suns even if George returned. Oh, and against Chris Paul, who is notorious for making some questionable plays?

Contrary to what most want to believe, not being available for their teams was eating at both George and Leonard.

“It's super frustrating. It's super frustrating to put so much into the season, put so much into this group and the organization, to put so much into making a team that could compete and again, year after year, just to get zapped by injuries. It's frustrating. It's definitely frustrating. That wasn't the reason I came here, I know it wasn’t the reason [Kawhi] came here. We obviously had big plans to win and do something special for Clipper Nation.”

And for those who thought Kawhi Leonard was simply sitting out to load manage *in the playoffs,* George offered a defense for him as well during the Suns series.

“It's been real hard,” Paul George said of Kawhi Leonard. “And I think what people don't understand is Kawhi is a trooper, man. Kawhi is a trooper. Kawhi is willing to put it on the line. The fact that he got hurt Game 1, tried to play through it Game 2 and people think that he's out 'cause he doesn't want to play. I think it just attacks his character, where people don't understand. Like, he'll play through it. It's got to be a reason why he's out. And he wants to be out there with us and he wants to be out there to lead.

“At the end of the day, all of this is a part of our legacy and at the end of the day we want the best legacy that we can create for ourselves and for family. So I know it hurts him not be able to be on that floor and continue to lead how he was.”

Both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are expected to enter the 2023-24 season fully healthy. In what will be the Clippers' final season at Crypto.com Arena, the franchise is hoping luck will finally be on their side to bring a championship to Los Angeles and into their new Inglewood home.

“I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason and you just pick up the pieces and try to make a hand out of what you dealt with. So, that's just how I remain positive. I’m very optimistic that our time will come.”