Good news on injuries lasts only so long
Day by delightful day, the Clippers have inched closer to almost becoming a complete team, the return Friday night of Blake Griffin and Wesley Johnson from the injured ranks improving their fortunes.
But guard Austin Rivers suffered a strained right Achilles’ tendon during the third quarter and didn’t return to the game. Rivers appeared to bang knees with teammate Sam Dekker along the baseline.
The Clippers were forced to call a timeout so Rivers could be taken to the locker room.
It had been a tough night for Rivers health-wise. He went down with 7 minutes 45 seconds left in the second quarter after bruising his left elbow. He returned to play after the injury but will get an MRI on Saturday.
He left the arena on crutches without speaking to reporters.
Rivers had 13 points on five-for-12 shooting, three-for-seven on three-pointers.
Griffin had been out the last 14 games recovering from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
But he started his first game since being hurt Nov. 27, playing against the same team he was injured against — the Lakers.
Johnson had missed five games because of left-foot soreness.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Griffin looked good at the Clippers’ practice Thursday and during a practice Wednesday with their G-League developmental team, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario.
“He just looked normal to me,” Rivers said. “When a lot of guys come back, you can see a limp, you can see something. He looked normal. He had a great practice yesterday. He looked good against the G-League guys.
“He was just fumbling the ball. He hadn’t played basketball. So that was just normal. But yesterday you could see in one day he was already reassured with his ball handling. What I was surprised by is that he had a couple of dunks. He looked normal and I think that was surprising for me.”
Though Griffin was out four weeks recovering from his injury, Rivers said there wouldn’t be a minutes restriction.
“We’ll monitor him,” Rivers said. “We’re not going to play him 40 minutes tonight. I shouldn’t even say that. Obviously we want to keep him at a low [amount]. We don’t want to throw him in there and just say you’re normal. We know that, but we’ll monitor him more with our eyes than with a minute count.”