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UPDATE: July 26 — Williams will miss the first two seeding games for the Clippers after being forced to quarantine for 10 days, Shams reported on Sunday. Williams left the bubble to attend the funeral of a family member. He went to pick up food from the popular strip club Magic City in Atlanta. Now, the League is forcing Williams to quarantine for 10 days.
So the Clippers won’t have one of their top scorers for games against the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans. The Clips are 6.5 games back of the Lakers for the No. 1 seed in the West. They are also just a 1.5 up on the Denver Nuggets for the 2-seed. This could be big if the Clippers drop the first two games of the seeding round.
UPDATE: July 25 — The NBA is investigating Lou Williams’ activities while outside the bubble on personal leave, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Saturday evening.
The NBA is investigating Clippers guard Lou Williams’ activities while on excused absence to assess the length of his re-quarantining process, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 25, 2020
It was reported a day ago that Lou Will left the bubble to attend to a personal matter, that which was unknown at the time. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reports that Williams attended the funeral of a relative and then picked up dinner at Magic City, a popular strip club in Atlanta.
We’ll see how long Williams will need to quarantine upon return. If the NBA makes him isolate for 10-14 days, obviously that would mean no Williams for the opener vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, which is a pretty big game for the Clips.
Los Angeles Clippers G Lou Williams has left the NBA bubble in Orlando to attend to a personal matter and is expected to rejoin the team soon, per the LA Times.
Lou Williams did not practice today with the Clippers. A source tells @latimessports that Williams has left the NBA bubble for excused personal reasons and is expected to return soon.
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) July 24, 2020
Lou Will is just the latest Clippers player to exit the bubble, joining Montrezl Harrell and Patrick Beverley. L.A. is expected to have all three back at some point, but will that be before the regular season starts up again? We aren’t entirely sure. The Clippers aren’t playing for too much other than seeding. So if coach Doc Rivers isn’t worried about seeding and matchups, the Clippers could just be fine letting players tend to their families for now.
Williams looked really good off the bench for the Clips in their first scrimmage inside the bubble, a 99-90 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. He led the team in scoring with 22 points.