{"id":549896,"date":"2026-01-21T00:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549896\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T00:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:17:32","slug":"is-kawhi-leonard-the-only-notable-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549896\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Kawhi Leonard the Only Notable Absence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers have won 13 out of their last 15 games, including their last six, to climb all the way up to the tenth seed in the Western Conference. Their last two wins have come without Kawhi Leonard, who is dealing with a left knee contusion after suffering the injury on January 10. The star forward played the next two games, albeit being limited to only 30 minutes each game, before getting ruled out on the Clippers’ East Coast road trip. <\/a><\/p>\n

Leonard will miss Tuesday’s clash in Chicago before getting a chance to return to action when the Clippers return to Intuit Dome on Thursday against the Lakers. <\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Derrick Jones Jr. Out vs. Bulls on Tuesday<\/p>\n

On the second night of a back-to-back in Chicago, the Clippers have their usual suspects on the injury report<\/a>. In addition to Leonard, the Clippers will be without Derrick Jones Jr. and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Jones has been out since January 3 with a knee sprain, and Bogi is still dealing with the effects of his hamstring injury after missing the last 12 games. Neither player is expected to return any time soon. <\/p>\n

Chris Paul is no longer with the team, and Bradley Beal is out for the season after undergoing hip surgery. This means that the Clippers have five rotation players sidelined. Considering that they only have 14 players on standard deals on the roster, the Clippers will once again be short-handed and rely heavily on Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders, both on two-way contracts. <\/p>\n

To make matters worse, shooting guard Cam Christie is questionable with abdominal soreness. This takes away one more backcourt option for the Clippers, suggesting that another night of heavy workload awaits James Harden<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Bulls are dealing with their own share of injuries. Josh Giddey, who missed Chicago’s last ten games with a hamstring strain, is questionable to play on Tuesday. Patrick Williams, who sprained his ankle against Brooklyn on Friday, is also questionable to suit up against the Clippers. Rookie Noa Essengue and veteran center Zach Collins are out for the Bulls. <\/p>\n

The Clippers certainly have enough to defeat the Bulls without Leonard, but the last game of a road trip, especially on the second night of a back-to-back after a day of travel, is always tricky. Yet, the Clippers will have all the desire in the world to extend their winning streak and continue their climb up the standings. <\/p>\n

Read More About the LA Clippers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Clippers have won 13 out of their last 15 games, including their last six, to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-549896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-laclippers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesclippers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115930218033692045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}