Westbrook's fracture sours mood as Clippers getting back to winning ways
The guard missed Friday's second half after suffering a left hand fracture.
LOS ANGELES — LA Clippers guard Russell Westbrook suffered a left-hand fracture in the first half of Friday night’s victory over the Washington Wizards, putting a damper on the mood around the team as the Clippers ended their two-game slide and moved to 38-20.
“Just feel bad for Russ right now,” coach Tyronn Lue said after the game.
“You never want to see a player get hurt. [Wizards guard Jordan] Poole drove around and he tried to deflect it from the back. I think he hit his elbow with his hand, so we don’t know what timetable, don’t know if he needs surgery or anything yet, but he’s out right now. So, just trying to figure it out.”
Westbrook ended his night with only 10 minutes played, finishing with six points and one assist while making two of his three shots.
“It’s a tough injury,” Clippers star Paul George said postgame. “[Westbrook]’s one of the most durable people we’ve had. But, to go along with his support system at home, we’ll be a support system here.”
The Clippers led by as much as 28 on Friday before finishing things off with a 140-115 triumph.
George made his return on Friday night after missing the team’s previous two games with left knee soreness. George was deemed questionable ahead of the game with what the team had called left knee meniscus irritation, a change that raised eyebrows on social media.
The star finished the night with 22 points in his return, scoring 11 in the first quarter while ending his night with 30 minutes of action in an attempt to ramp George back up to his normal workload.
“I just needed some time off,” George told gathered media in the locker room after the game. “It was a rough stretch going into the break, coming out of the break, and so just my body needed that rest. But I felt good tonight and was able to walk out clean.”
In the nine games before his recent absence, George had averaged 17.9 points on 41.5% shooting, a far cry from his usual level of stardom.
When asked after the game if the knee issue is something he’s dealt with all season or if it just developed over the last few weeks, George replied: “It’s been something that I’ve been dealing with all season. [I’ve] been able to play through it enough, but, yeah, it just hit a wall. I kind of needed to take a little breather and muster up [health] for the next part of the season.”
The Clippers play the Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday and Monday in a daunting back-to-back that features opponents with a combined 82-39 record.
There’s no word yet if George will indeed play both legs of the back-to-back. When asked if playing on back-to-backs is something he’d still do despite the ongoing injury management, George said: “If I feel OK, why not?”
Kawhi Leonard ended the night with 27 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in 29 minutes. Leonard’s services weren’t needed in the fourth quarter as the Clippers ran away from the Wizards (9-51).
James Harden led the way for the Clippers with 28 points and eight assists, with 21 of those 28 points coming in a second-quarter flurry that saw the bearded assassin drop in five 3s and have two traditional 3-point plays. He, like Leonard, also got to rest for the fourth.
“Overall, it’s just one of those feel-good games,” Harden said. “It’s a tough three-game stretch on the road that we are about to face but taking one game at a time.”
Daniel Theis started in place of Ivica Zubac who missed his second straight game due to an illness. Theis finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Terance Mann added 12 points to round out the starting five which is Mann’s fourth consecutive game reaching at least that many points.
Amir Coffey led all bench scorers with 10 points while Norman Powell chipped in with nine. Brandon Boston Jr. had seven, Mason Plumlee scored four, and Moussa Diabate, Kobe Brown, and Bones Hyland all finished with two.
Hyland was the player who saw a dramatic uptick in minutes due to Westbrook’s injury, taking Westbrook’s usual rotation role in the second half and ending the night with 16 minutes.
“It felt good just to be back in the rotation, be back out there,” Hyland told Russo Writes after the game. “Team can use my talent. It just feels good, man, honestly. I love playing basketball. I love hooping, so this is great for me.”
Hyland said he’ll need to shake “a little rust off” as he gets back into the swing of things, saying it comes down to “shots and s— like that.”
Kyle Kuzma led Washington with 32 points while Jordan Poole added 16 and Deni Avdija netted 14 points, five rebounds, and five assists. The Wizards have lost 14 games in a row.
Losing Westbrook is undoubtedly a big deal for a Clippers team that needs vocal leadership and energy in a major way, especially off the bench and in lineups that can accentuate the talents of the stars by easing some of their burdens.
Westbrook, 35, is averaging 11.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists in a career-low 22.6 minutes per game while shooting 45.2% from the field.
The guard missed four weeks and 14 games in 2014-15 due to a broken hand suffered as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in a game against the LA Clippers in Los Angeles. A four-week absence would put Westbrook on track to return around March 31 against Charlotte. However, postgame Friday, Lue said there was no timetable for Westbrook’s injury as of yet.
Up next for the Clippers is a big matchup in Minnesota against the Timberwolves, a team that has owned them in the previous two meetings. The Clippers presently sit two games back in the loss column of Minnesota for the top spot in the Western Conference.
How the Clippers navigate life without Westbrook will be interesting.
It’s not a small loss, and it’ll be up to Hyland and others to fill the gap as the Clippers enter their most daunting stretch of the season to date.