The Los Angeles Clippers‘ postseason fate was sealed on Saturday afternoon, as the team’s 134-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets meant that they would miss out on the playoffs. This marks the first time since the 2010-11 campaign that the Clippers have missed out on the opportunity to compete for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
It means that Los Angeles’ final regular season game of the year on Wednesday will mark the unceremonious end to their season. It’s been quite the campaign for the Clippers, as the team has managed to persevere through the Chris Paul’s trade during the offseason, a myriad of injuries, and the midseason trade of Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons to get to a point where they were fighting until nearly the end.
One of the biggest storylines of the first half of the Clippers’ season was the near-constant trade rumors centering around DeAndre Jordan. The team ultimately did not trade him, but for a few months, it looked like a foregone conclusion that he would end the season elsewhere.
But Jordan ended the season in Los Angeles, and as we learned after the team’s loss on Saturday, he ended the season with a bum ankle. Doc Rivers announced after the game that Jordan has spent the last month or so with an ankle injury, but has played through it.
Here's Doc Rivers on DeAndre Jordan's growth as a leader and Jordan and Williams' toughness as it relates to playing through pain pic.twitter.com/FdOMXM2eKm
— Law Murray 🐦🔥 (@LawMurrayTheNU) April 8, 2018
“We put a lot on his shoulders, too,” Rivers said. “He’s been laboring with his ankle for a month, no one knew that. We didn’t want to share it with anybody but he has been. Literally, you can see him. But he kept playing. He didn’t miss takes. I swear, with that ankle, he was never right once he came back. I’m going to tell you, most guys miss 10 more games with that type of injury. And he just wanted to play and be out on the floor. That was the type of group that we had all year.”
There’s no word on the extent of the injury, and as Rivers alluded to in his statement, Jordan missed a few games with an ankle injury. Jordan had said recently that his ankle was acting up, but Rivers’ implication is that it’s been a much bigger issue than he let on.
Rivers also let it be known that he’s going to ask Jordan if he wants to try to take the floor in the final two games of the year. If he doesn’t play, it means that Jordan’s tenure with the Clippers could be coming to an end, as he has a player option worth $24 million that he can potentially pick up. If he passes on it, he would become an unrestricted free agent.
