Why isn’t Kawhi Leonard playing for the Clippers against the Mavs in game 6?

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard has already missed three games in the playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks and looks set to sit out Game 6 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas tonight. Head coach Tyronn Lue had confirmed on Tuesday that the All-Star would play no part in the last game but added that Kawhi has been contributing in other ways.

“He keeps himself involved, just being in the shootarounds, being in the practices, understanding what we’re trying to do. So when guys make mistakes coming out of games, he can let them know,” the coach told reporters. “He can talk to those guys. He also lets us know what he sees with PG and with James [Harden]. He’s been really vocal, he’s helped us out a lot even though he’s not playing”.

And then the news was broken by ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk that Leonard would miss Game 6 too.

Kawhi Leonard and his knee inflammation

Leonard has been suffering inflammation to his right knee which kept him out of Games 1 and 4 in the first-round series. He’s been struggling to overcome issues with his troublesome knee which left him sidelined for the last eight games of the regular season. The Clippers had been looking more in command when Leonard has been missing - Lue’s team won the first game 109-97 and beat the Mavs 111-116 on Sunday to level the series. Leonard posted 15 points and seven rebounds in Game 2 and nine points and nine rebounds in the following one - both of which the Clippers lost. But Game 5 without him was the largest playoff defeat in Clippers history.

During the regular season, he averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 68 games. He has never managed to complete a full season since joining the Clippers from the Raptors in the summer of 2019.

dAn missed the entire 2021-22 season after rupturing the ACL in his right knee during the 2021 playoffs. He underwent surgery in July 2021 to repair his damaged ligament and underwent a cleanup procedure in June last year to trim a torn meniscus in the same knee.d