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UPDATE: Reggie Jackson will start along with Marcus Morris against the Trail Blazers.
Los Angeles Clippers SF Kawhi Leonard will not play Saturday vs. the Portland Trail Blazers due to load management. Bet you’ve never heard that before! Sike. It appears the Clippers are using the same thinking as in the regular season — resting Kawhi on one end of a back-to-back.
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard (injury management, left knee soreness) will NOT play today vs. Portland. Decision was just made.
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) August 8, 2020
This is the same approach to back-to-backs the Clippers have taken all season with Kawhi. Clippers play Sunday, as well.
Kawhi apparently has a sore knee and will sit the game against the Blazers out. Los Angeles has some room in the West at the No. 2 seed ahead of the Denver Nuggets. The Trail Blazers can pull within a half a game of the Memphis Grizzlies for the 8-seed with a win. Let’s take a look at the fantasy basketball and betting side.
Fantasy basketball and betting impact
So that makes Leonard, Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell who are all expected to be out for the Clips. That means it’s the Paul George show, ladies and gentlemen. At $8K on DraftKings, PG-13 will be one of the more popular plays on the main slate. Although, it is the early game so be careful. Still, George will get a huge bump in usage and it doesn’t seem like Doc Rivers will pull players early at any point. The Clippers only have 1.5 games on Denver.
With PG being chalk, who else can we look to? Well, Reggie Jackson ($5,400) didn’t start last game with Pat Bev out. Landry Shamet ($3,300) was in there with the first unit. Neither did much of anything. Jackson has the higher ceiling and his usage was still high against Dallas the other game. We should see more Marcus Morris ($4,500) at SF or PF depending on the rotation.
The Clippers are +4 right now. I’m not interested in them at all considering the stakes for Portland. The Trail Blazers are 100% healthy and NEED this win to inch closer to a playoff spot. Unless PG goes God Mode, I don’t see L.A. putting up much of a fight in this one.
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