The Los Angeles Clippers will be without Kawhi Leonard to begin the postseason

Kawhi Leonard has been ruled out for Game 1 of the Los Angeles Clippers‘ first round matchup with the Dallas Mavericks due to right knee inflammation, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who tweeted:

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard (knee inflammation) has been ruled out for Game 1 vs. Mavericks today.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard (knee inflammation) has been ruled out for Game 1 vs. Mavericks today.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 21, 2024

Leonard appeared in 68 games during the regular season, marking his most games played since the 2016-17 season. While the Clippers had a 44-24 record with the six-time All-Star in the lineup, they finished 7-7 in the 14 games he missed. Furthermore, they will be playing a Dallas Mavericks team that has been among the hottest teams in the league over the past two and a half months. After getting off to a 26-23 start, Dallas went 24-9 to finish the season.

Although Los Angeles has three potential future Hall of Famers – Paul George, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook – to turn to, attempting to slow down Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will become much tougher if the two-time Defensive Player of the Year is out for an extended period.

Sunday’s matchup will mark the 12th postseason game that Kawhi Leonard has missed since joining the Clippers ahead of the 2019-20 season. After winning their first two postseason games without him in 2020-21, they have lost seven of the past nine postseason games that he has missed.

The franchise will hope that Leonard, who signed a three-year max contract extension during the season, will be able to return for Game 2 on Tuesday. The two-time NBA champion led the team in scoring, averaging 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 52.5% from the field, 41.7% from three-point range and 88.5% from the free-throw line.

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