Monday update: Including Monday’s game, Leonard will miss at least the next three games due to injury management. It sounds like Leonard’s knee has responded poorly to him playing, or the Clippers could just be giving their star some extra rest. This has becoming more concerning with each missed game.
Monday update: Leonard is going to miss Monday’s game against the Rockets due to injury management. The Clippers apparently don’t have to disclose what the injury is, and this is starting to get a bit ridiculous given how early it is in the season. It will be the fifth game Leonard misses out of seven potential appearances.
Saturday update: Leonard has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Pelicans due to injury management. Leonard has missed the team’s last two games due to injury management, so we’ll hopefully get some more clarity when Tyronn Lue speaks to the media Sunday.
The Los Angeles Clippers have ruled Kawhi Leonard out of Tuesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder due to injury management. This is an interesting spot to rest Leonard, since this game is not part of a back-to-back set for the Clippers. Leonard is set to miss at least two games with this “injury”.
Kawhi Leonard is out tonight for the Clippers
— Charles Mockler (@charlesmockler) October 25, 2022
Leonard has been coming off the bench to begin the season as he recovers from an ACL injury which cost him all of last season. The expectation was he would be healthy and ready to go, but that’s clearly not the case. Leonard has been notorious for taking games off even when healthy, even spawning the term “load management” as a result. We’ll see if this trend changes as the season gets into December and January.
Paul George, Nicolas Batum and Terance Mann are elevated in fantasy/DFS formats with Leonard being ruled out. The Clippers are likely going to beat the Thunder without Leonard anyway, so from that standpoint it does make sense for him to rest.