ESPN has learned that Blake Griffin will miss significant time due to an “undisclosed team-related injury,” believed to be as serious as a fractured right hand. Griffin was already nursing a torn quad muscle that had kept him off the court since Christmas, and was expecting to return to the starting lineup this week had he not suffered this new injury.
Griffin returned home to Los Angeles from his team’s 5-game road trip early, and won’t be with the team when they travel to Indiana and Atlanta this week. Fortunately for Doc Rivers‘ squad, they’ve persevered through the setbacks, and have dropped just 3 games since December 26, the first night Griffin was sidelined by his torn quad.
This news comes at an interesting time, especially considering Josh Smith was just–surprisingly, might we add–traded to the Houston Rockets after just 3 mildly productive months with Los Angeles. Could that have something to do with Blake’s new setback? Surely, we’ll know in the coming days.
