Blake Griffin could miss 2 months with sprained MCL, per report

Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin could miss two months with a sprained MCL, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Griffin suffered his injury on Monday against the Los Angeles Lakers when teammate Austin Rivers accidentally rolled into his leg, buckling it inwards.

You can see video of the injury here. It’s not graphic, but it is uncomfortable looking, so you might want to skip this video if you’re squeamish to these sorts of things.

This is yet another injury for Griffin, who has suffered a litany of them. He has missed time in his career with a broken toe, right knee surgery, a broken hand, a torn left quadricep, back spasms, and even a staph infection.

There’s nothing Griffin could have done about Rivers rolling up onto his knee, unfortunately. (It also wasn’t Lonzo Ball’s fault, like Doc Rivers tried to suggest.) But this really does feel like yet another chapter in the Clippers’ cursed injury history.

What does this mean for the Clippers?

Griffin’s absence is a huge blow to Los Angeles. While the Clippers have survived injuries to Griffin in past seasons, they no longer have Chris Paul to buoy the team in his absence. The Clippers are also in a bad spot — after starting 5-2, they lost nine straight before rebounding with wins in their last three games.

A huge part of the struggles this season have been injuries, somewhat predictably. Griffin’s injury is an uncontrollable one, with someone running directly into his knee. However, Danilo Gallinari and Milos Teodosic have both missed time as well, and Patrick Beverley was lost for the year. All three players have injury history in their recent past.

Without Griffin, the Clippers have little-to-no scoring. They could still try to lean back on a defensive approach with DeAndre Jordan in the middle ... but they haven’t even been great on that end this year, ranking No. 19 in the league.

Does this put them out of the playoff race?

The Clippers are only a half game back of the Utah Jazz, who currently hold the No. 8 seed. Still, if Griffin is going to be out that long, it’s hard to see Los Angeles treading water enough to be within striking distance once he returns.

One team above them, too, is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most of the league still expects their talent to win out and the Thunder to find solutions for their struggles. If Oklahoma City gets back into the playoff picture, then the amount Los Angeles needs to climb back into this is ever larger.

That’s a lot to ask a team that had so much riding around their one star.

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