Blake Griffin (concussion), Milos Teodosic (plantar fascia) out for Clippers
LOS ANGELES -- The Clippers ruled Blake Griffin (concussion) and Milos Teodosic (plantar fascia) out Monday night as they host the Atlanta Hawks.
Griffin suffered the head injury in Saturday's loss to the Golden State Warriors. It is his second injury this season that has cost him time, as he recently returned from a sprained left MCL that put him out for 14 games.
Teodosic is dealing with a recurrence of a previous injury that cost him nearly two months this season. He was listed as questionable before head coach Doc Rivers ruled him out prior to the game. However, Rivers anticipates Teodosic will return as soon as Wednesday at Golden State.
"Milos is doing well," Rivers said. When asked if Teodosic would play Monday, Rivers said, "No, he's not doing that well. But he's doing a lot better. I guess I should have said there's a chance that he'll play Wednesday."
Rivers also mentioned that while Griffin already has passed some concussion protocol tests, he will only return to action after passing the entire test.
"Blake was there today, he was on the bike. He's passed a couple of tests already. Probably more than a lot of guys in this room have ever done, that's for sure," Rivers said jokingly. "But you know, the whole protocol thing now, you have to go through the entire protocol. And so, I think he has a couple more ... to pass, and so we just have to wait.
Rivers said that might take about a week, usingAustin Rivers' concussion from earlier this season as a reference. Rivers was concussed on Dec. 13 at theOrlando Magic, returning after missing two games on Dec. 18 at the San Antonio Spurs.
"I don't think it will be any sooner than that. That's for sure," Doc Rivers said of Griffin's return.
The Clippers also are missing opening-day starters Danilo Gallinari (left glute) and Patrick Beverley(out for the season due to right knee surgery), as well as Austin Rivers (right ankle).
The Clippers are starting rookie second-rounder Jawun Evans, usual sixth man Lou Williams, two-way contract player C.J. Williams, Wesley Johnson, and DeAndre Jordan on Monday. It's their league-leading 19th different starting lineup of the season.
Doc Rivers shared his thoughts on why the injuries might be piling up around the league.
"There's a million theories, it's a great question. I wish someone had an answer. I don't have an answer. I wish all of them played more basketball. Clearly, that's not the whole reason, but I just think ... I used to play basketball years ago, just a lot of basketball. It doesn't lose on me that [former Clippers guard]Jamal Crawford is always healthy. Because he plays basketball. I think a lot of guys now do so much, do all of the other stuff that I think is important, but the game they play is basketball. When the season starts, some of those guys haven't played. They've been doing all of the other stuff and then we ask them to play 40 minutes of basketball. And bodies aren't used to it. That's my second-grade theory.
"But I don't know. Some of them is just freak injuries this year. Seems like there's a lot of them. They're stronger; I think they're more flexible too. But I don't know the answer. They're bigger. I don't have any clues there. These guys have muscles that I didn't know about. Literally. I couldn't hurt any of those muscles because I didn't have any of them. But I don't know. There's just a lot of injuries in our league right now."
