Clippers' Blake Griffin to miss playoffs remainder with toe injury
The 2017 NBA season's fourth-seed Western Conference team, Los Angeles Clippers, have announced that its starting forward, Blake Griffin, suffered a big toe injury which will result for him to miss the remainder of the playoffs.
On Friday, after playing eighteen minutes in game 3 of the first round playoffs matchup against the West Conference's fifth-seed, Utah Jazz, Griffin suffered a bruised toe after attempting to make a pass under the basket which resulted for him to land awkwardly. ESPN reported that the injury started to happen three minutes earlier when he stepped on his teammate, Marreese Speights' foot while on a defensive play. Griffin tried to play a few minutes more but the team already noticed him limping on the court.
That resulted for the coaching staff to decide that the 6'10 power forward will not return to the game. As the third and fourth games of the Jazz and Clippers' first round matchup are held at the Utah home court, Griffin is going to see a foot specialist when the Clippers return to LA. Clippers head coach, Doc Rivers, further said that a surgery might be possible for Griffin's injury recovery.
Upon the announcement of Blake Griffin's injury, Clippers fans all over social media reacted about the possibility that the Los Angeles Clippers might lose the first round series against the Jazz. After the 2016-17 regular season, the fourth and fifth best team in the Western Conference had the same record, 51 wins, and 31 losses. Some fans also questioned Griffin about his 'never-ending injuries' where they pointed out last year's playoffs when Griffin was also injured against the Trail Blazers, which eventually led to their loss in the sixth game.
Clippers' point guard, Chris Paul stated that he hated to see his teammate suffer from injuries because he had seen Blake Griffin worked hard since the beginning of the season. The last game Griffin played against the Jazz was game 3 and without the starting forward on the second half, Paul was the one who dominated the court, where he scored a total of 34 points.
