Paul George (knee) out at least 2-3 weeks | CBS Sports

We got breaking news out of the NBA where Paul George is set to miss the next two to three weeks with a sprained right knee. PG was injured during the fourth quarter of last night's loss to the Thunder and was unable to return if George misses a full three weeks that would knock him out for the rest of the regular season. The Clippers currently sit in fifth place in the Western Conference headed into tomorrow's rematch against OKC. For more on this let's now welcome in NBA analyst Avery Johnson. Clippers sit in fifth in the West there coach one game up on the Golden State Warriors. What do they look like over the next few weeks without George in the lineup? We're they're a different team because they arguably lose you know one of their top two defenders a guy that they can play through on the offensive and obviously Kawhi Leonard is a huge focal point when he's in the lineup but you lose a guy that can pass dribbling shoot he's long atlantic he can guard basically four positions on the floor. You know he had two impressive dunks in this game before this knee injury.

So this is very disappointing for the Clippers with Paul George coming down wrong and having this sprained right knee. It didn't look good. I'm glad it's not you know an ACL or a type of an injury that's going to keep him out for a year so they are going to get him back at some point but this definitely will allow the Clippers not to move up any higher. I think they may move down one or two spots with Paul George being out for the rest of the regular season. Yeah so coach how do they how do they make up for that for that loss in production with George set to be out and as you mentioned I mean is it about just trying to stay 500 at this point moving forward because it's not looking like you're going to be able to move up much higher. Yeah and again you got guys like Eric Gordon you know Russell Westbrook those guys are they traded for them for a reason. You don't only trade for them for depth you trade for those type of players and if you do have injuries to some of your top line players that when their minutes are increased they've done it before.

Eric Gordon has been a really good player in the NBA for a long time obviously Westbrook has been a superstar and been MVP's so they have guys that are capable Nicholas Batum who's a really good defender he'll probably have to be inserted into the lineup and play alongside you know Kawhi Leonard so they have the bodies the capabilities to Covington to make up for Paul George's loss but again you got to put together two or three of those guys to make one Paul George so we'll see what happens. Yeah again Paul George out for two to three weeks set to be reevaluated in two to three weeks after suffering that knee sprain last night. Coach how concerned are you from a conditioning standpoint when you have a player like him I mean obviously timing for any injury is bad but now the season's winding down he's potentially going to miss the rest of the regular season which means he comes back when every game has a little bit of extra meaning so how concerned are you at this point about Paul George's overall conditioning given the fact that he's likely going to have to stay immobile for the next few weeks. Not really concerned in terms of conditioning Paul George is a type of player who's always been a phenomenally conditioned athlete he's never really had weight problems whether it's underweight or overweight this guy you know could come back after two weeks you know practice for two or three days and then he'll be ready to go some athletes are just that weight. Now if you had a guy that has a significant maybe weight issue then it may take him longer you just can't be trustworthy enough of him when he's reinserted in the lineup to be ready to play. Paul George could come back and not even be on a minute restriction because I've been in situations like that but because I was in such phenomenal condition I could miss you know a week or two and it would take me two or three days to get back and be ready to play. I'm not overly concerned about Paul George coming back and taking a long time to be ready to go.

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