PHILADELPHA – Clippers rookie Reggie Bullock is expected to miss the remainder of the Clippers’ road trip with a left high ankle sprain.
Bullock, who has appeared in 17 games this season, sustained the injury in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ 88-82 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday when he came down awkwardly going up for a rebound. He underwent further examination at Quicken Loans Arena and X-rays were negative.
The Clippers (13-8) play in Philadelphia Monday before traveling to Boston, Brooklyn and Washington this week.
The No. 25 pick out of North Carolina, Bullock, was beginning to see more court time recently as he filled in for injured forward Matt Barnes. Barnes has been out since Nov. 18 with a retinal tear in his left eye. Barnes had surgery to repair the tear a few days later and is not with the Clippers on their seven-game road trip.
In 10.3 minutes per game, Bullock has averaged 2.7 points and is shooting 28.6 percent from 3-point range. Since Barnes’ injury Bullock had scored at least six points in four games, including nine points (3-for-3 from long range) five days ago against Memphis.
“With Reggie being out for this trip and maybe longer and Matt being out we don’t have another three,” Head Coach Doc Rivers said.
Along with Barnes and Bullock, guard J.J. Redick remains out with a fractured right hand and torn ligament in his wrist and Maalik Wayns is still working his way back from knee surgery. Asked how he has dealt with the injuries, Rivers said, “That happens. It’s funny. I’d rather have had them now than the ones we had in training camp where we couldn’t get things in. Everyone’s going to have injuries over the course of the year. Obviously, we’ve had them at the two spot with J.J. being out for a while and that hurts us. And now the three spot. That’s the middle of your team in a lot of ways.
“No one’s going to feel bad about, but I think in the long run, right now we’re struggling with it, but in the long run there will be something good that comes out of it that’s going to be good for our team. You never know what you’ll find. You may find one of these other guys that comes in a does well for you and then you’ve strengthened your team when everybody else comes back.”
One of the ways the Clippers may do that is the rumored addition of another player to the roster. Rivers said after the Cavaliers game that the team would exhaust all potential avenues to fill in for Barnes, Bullock and Redick.
“We are close,” Rivers said of adding another player. “It’s not done yet. Nothing’s done in our league until it’s done.”
On Monday the Clippers will have just 10 available players, including DeAndre Jordan, who strained his right foot against Cleveland, but will start in Philadelphia.
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