More bad news for Blake Griffin and the struggling and short-handed Los Angeles Clippers: Griffin will miss the next two months while he recovers from a sprained MCL.
No structural damage in left knee with sprained MCL for Clippers All-Star Blake Griffin, league source tells ESPN. Recovery could take two months, source says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 28, 2017
Griffin suffered the injury in the 4th quarter of the Clippers 120-115 win over the Lakers on Monday night when a tumbling Austin Rivers landed on him and caused his leg to bend in an awkward position.
No official word yet on the severity of Blake Griffin’s knee injury, but – um – the video does not look good. pic.twitter.com/sUTHGml3do
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) November 28, 2017
As you can see from the video, it looked like it could have been much worse, which is why the Clippers are understandably relieved.
The recovery time for a sprained MCL is really a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the injury and how the person’s body responds to it.
It could be a couple weeks or a couple months, either way the Clippers are in the midst of a nosedive already and will most certainly struggle to keep themselves anywhere near the western conference playoff picture with Griffin out now in addition to Patrick Beverley who is done for the season, Danilo Gallinari who has no firm timetable for a return and Milos Tedosic, who is due back by Christmas at the earliest.
By the time Griffin does return, the Clippers will likely be much closer to the bottom of the league’s standings than they will to .500.
As big of a bummer as this is for Griffin and the team who invested over $170 million in him this summer, it could have been much, much worse.
