ORLANDO – As one player returns, another goes out.
The Clippers got Austin Rivers back Wednesday night against the Magic following a one-game absence from a concussion, but Luc Mbah a Moute missed the matchup with a right AC sprain in his shoulder.
“I personally don’t think it’s going to be a long time,” Mbah a Moute said. “I thought, actually, I’d be better by now, but I guess sometimes it takes a little while.”
Mbah a Moute injured the shoulder Monday against Portland trying to get around a Mason Plumlee screen.
“I just feel like it got caught,” Mbah a Moute said. “I felt it right away, I think I even walked off because I wanted to check it. It’s kind of just been sore, still got a little bit of swelling in there.”
Monday marked the first game Mbah a Moute has missed this year, something he doesn’t like to happen. He said he wasn’t nervous it was anything too serious when it happened, and he hopes to still play at some point on the Clippers’ three-game trip.
The news was better for Austin Rivers, who passed enough tests to make the trip, and then passed the rest to be medically cleared before Wednesday’s tip.
“He got through a lot of stuff,” Doc Rivers said. “Now, you’ve got to go through the computer test, two doctors, you’ve got to run on a treadmill, on a bike, then you’ve got to literally get jolted on the floor. It’s amazing, but it’s good.”
Austin said there was a mental test, then a physical one, and he checked out fine in everything. It was the first concussion he’d ever sustained, but he knew something wasn’t right when he took the elbow to the face, describing himself as “out of it.”
In the days following, he started to feel better.
“I passed all my tests,” Austin said. “I knew I was going to pass them. I felt pretty good. I got a lot of rest. So I feel good.”
As for Brice Johnson, who’s missed the entire start to his rookie season with a herniated disc in his back, the process is still slow.
He was on the court prior to Wednesday’s game doing more than the spot shooting he’d been limited to in past weeks, and he said the workouts are ramping up a little bit, but there aren’t many updates regarding his recovery.
Doc Rivers usually knows when a player is close to returning, and it’s not there yet.
“With the back, I just don’t know,” Rivers said. “I just stay out of (the medical staff’s) way. I don’t ask a question. The thing is, they have not said once he is close to returning. When you don’t hear anything, you just assume he’s out.”