Kawhi Leonard ruled out for Game 1 against Mavs

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has revealed that All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard has officially been ruled out for the first game of L.A.’s first round playoff series against the Mavericks Sunday afternoon, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

This isn’t exactly a surprise, as the prospects for his return from right knee inflammation had looked bleak as recently as Saturday.

Lue did not divulge who will replace Leonard in his starting lineup, tweets Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. Veteran forward P.J. Tucker started in Leonard’s stead during the Clippers’ penultimate game of the regular season (Lue started backups in the season finale).

Mark Medina of The Sporting News reports that Lue is uncertain if Leonard will be available for Game 2, slated for Tuesday night. In fact, it remains unclear if Leonard will even get the green light for contact workouts this week, according to Medina.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Lue said.

The 51-31 Clippers, the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed, will host the 50-32 Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles for the first two contests of the series before it moves to Dallas. The two clubs have squared off against each other in the first round of the playoffs twice since Leonard joined L.A. as a free agent, in 2020 and ’21. The Clippers won both encounters.

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd has revealed that swingman Tim Hardaway Jr., who had been questionable due to an illness, will suit up, after all, Medina tweets.