Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was forced to leave Friday night’s game early after an errant elbow from teammate Serge Ibaka connected with his face, sending him to the floor and causing him to bleed profusely from his mouth. While the injury looked bad initially, head coach Tyronn Lue said after the game that he thought Leonard would be “fine,” tweets Malika Andrews of ESPN.
The collision left Leonard requiring eight stitches to treat a mouth laceration, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. However, Nicolas Batum said he spoke to Kawhi after the game and agreed with Lue’s assessment that the two-time Finals MVP should ultimately be fine.
“You don’t want a player, any player, (to) go down like that with blood all over him and everywhere on the floor,” Batum said. “I think he’s good. I just saw him in the locker room; he was OK, and that was kind of scary in the moment.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Addressing rumors that he and the Lakers may attempt to work out an in-season extension, point guard Dennis Schröder said on Friday night that he’s “very comfortable” with his new team and is interested in negotiating a new deal in the coming months as long as it’s fair for both sides, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
- After going scoreless in his Lakers debut, newly-signed center Marc Gasol expressed confidence that he’ll bounce back and find his fit going forward, as Buha writes for The Athletic. While Gasol only scored two points on Friday and has yet to make a field goal, he was more effective in the Lakers’ blowout win over Dallas, grabbing nine rebounds and avoiding the foul trouble that plagued him in the opener.
- Damian Jones‘ 2020/21 salary was initially set to become fully guaranteed at the start of the regular season, but he and the Suns have agreed to push that deadline back to February 25, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
KL took a nasty hit. Clippers played hard…Denver will be top 3 or 4 in the west. Mistake to screw up that roster and take harden. Murray is better over next 5 years. Murray is fast, quick and plays defense.
I guess Ibaka never learned that you are supposed to throw those elbows at guys wearing the other colors.
(Just joking, I’m sure it was unintentional.)
I wonder what Ibaka playing on a new team had to do with it. He is not the most aware and former opponent KL was “wide open”!
Damn, nothing but bad luck for Kawhi every since he joined the Clips.
Clippers new guys looked good. To me this team can still use a rim protector. And a playmaking PG.
Everyone jumping back on clippers bandwagon because they beat lakers in game 1.. a game where lebron and ad weren’t in game last 7 mins of 4th quarter.. Can’t wait until they meet later on in season..
I guess the elbow to the face is the new “what it do babyyyyy”…
The Clippers needed a 50 point beating to set them back to reality.