Danilo Gallinari has played in 19 games for the Clippers this season and sat 42 with injuries. That second number is going to get higher in the coming weeks.
Gallinari will miss a couple more weeks with what the team is now admitting is a fractured right hand (his shooting hand). He had missed the previous three games with a hand injury, but the team was calling it a “contusion” up to this point.
Gallinari, a big off-season signing by the Clippers, is averaging 15.9 points and is a threat from three, spacing out the floor when he plays. Without him, Doc Rivers has to lean much more heavily on Wesley Johnson, which makes James Harden lick his lips.
The injury-plagued Clippers — Avery Bradley likely is out for the season, Patrick Beverley is out for the season — are currently just half a game out of the playoffs in the West, trailing the Nuggets. Los Angeles is in the middle of a battle to make the playoffs (they beat the Knicks Friday night behind 21 points from Lou Williams) and all these injuries are piling up fast.
