LOS ANGELES — Bradley Beal never could have imagined the damage caused by one false step.
The former Washington Wizards star scrambled to his feet Saturday, then lunged awkwardly toward Grayson Allen in hopes of breaking up a transition opportunity for the Phoenix Suns. Beal, a newly minted starting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers, was a split-second too late and came up empty. The 32-year-old didn’t make contact with Allen or the ball, and he didn’t immediately go down in a heap or head to the sidelines. In fact, Beal kept playing until midway through the third quarter of a 114-103 home loss — his customary rotation as he eased his way back from offseason knee surgery.
LOS ANGELES — Bradley Beal never could have imagined the damage caused by one false step.
The former Washington Wizards star scrambled to his feet Saturday, then lunged awkwardly toward Grayson Allen in hopes of breaking up a transition opportunity for the Phoenix Suns. Beal, a newly minted starting guard for the Los Angeles Clippers, was a split-second too late and came up empty. The 32-year-old didn’t make contact with Allen or the ball, and he didn’t immediately go down in a heap or head to the sidelines. In fact, Beal kept playing until midway through the third quarter of a 114-103 home loss — his customary rotation as he eased his way back from offseason knee surgery.
But the force of Beal’s fateful lunge, the Clippers discovered later, had improbably left him with a fractured hip that requires season-ending surgery. Following the procedure, Beal will be immobilized for up to a week, on crutches for up to six weeks and sidelined for up to nine months. Clippers President Lawrence Frank said Wednesday that Beal’s hip injury was unrelated to any past health concerns, including the knee surgery, and deemed it “really, really fluky.”
“The surgeon said it’s almost like the equivalent of being in a car accident,” Frank explained. “It’s an atypical basketball injury. It’s more of an acute trauma type of injury.”
There’s bad luck, and then there’s suffering a season-ending car accident trauma injury without a collision of any sort. Beal’s foot had simply returned to the hardwood, a routine action that somehow ended his first season with the Clippers after just six appearances.
“Prayers to [Beal],” Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue said. “I just feel bad for him.”
Hours after the news of Beal’s diagnosis broke, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic proceeded to plunge the Clippers deeper into an unexpected early-season crisis with a performance for the ages Wednesday. The three-time MVP posted a season-high 55 points to go with 12 rebounds and six assists in a 130-116 blowout win at Intuit Dome, dealing the Clippers their sixth straight loss.
Los Angeles’s 3-8 record is its worst mark through 11 games since 2010-11, and the franchise is suddenly facing the possibility of a losing season for the first time since billionaire owner Steve Ballmer purchased the team in 2014. The rocky start is unfolding under the dark cloud of an NBA investigation into allegations that Ballmer, the former Microsoft executive and the league’s richest owner, circumvented salary cap rules to arrange extra payments to franchise forward Kawhi Leonard.
The Clippers’ marketing slogan Wednesday, meant to pay homage to the franchise’s roots as the Buffalo Braves in the 1970s, was “A Brave Beginning.” Unfortunately, the new pumpkin jerseys and alternate blue court couldn’t paper over the fact that a deflating end to a successful, but injury-plagued, era seems to be fast approaching.
In addition to Beal, the Clippers were without Leonard, who is sidelined indefinitely with ankle and foot sprains. Leonard’s 2019 arrival lifted hopes that the Clippers would claim their first championship, but his nonstop injuries have spoiled season after season ever since.
This season’s turbulence has turned last year’s 50-win campaign into a distant memory. The Clippers added a wave of veterans over the summer — Beal, John Collins, Brook Lopez and future Hall of Famer Chris Paul — to support Leonard and star guard James Harden. Leonard, Harden and Beal were tasked with handling the bulk of the scoring, while the Clippers’ defense, directed by assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy, was supposed to remain as stout and aggressive as it was last season.
That blueprint just hasn’t materialized: Leonard started strong and hit a dramatic buzzer-beater to top the New Orleans Pelicans on Halloween, but Harden has largely been left to fend for himself following the injuries to his fellow scorers. Given that he is 36, it’s no longer reasonable to ask Harden to lead an elite offense as a one-man band on a nightly basis. Meanwhile, the Clippers’ defense has dropped from third last season to 26th this season, leaking points in transition and lacking physicality more often than not.
The Clippers’ new additions haven’t found their footing. Paul, 40, has struggled to hold rotation minutes as he prepares to retire in the spring after 21 seasons. Lopez, 37, has seen his playing time cut considerably after arriving from the Milwaukee Bucks, and Collins was bumped out of the starting lineup until the injury bug hit. Los Angeles has endured a poor start despite a home-heavy opening schedule, and its problems could deepen as the team embarks on a seven-game road trip later this week.
With most of the roster’s key players in their 30s, Frank and the Clippers’ front office have tried to protect the organization’s future salary cap flexibility while pursuing Ballmer’s desire to field a playoff-caliber team every season. The Clippers didn’t re-sign star forward Paul George in 2024, and they traded guard Norman Powell to the Miami Heat over the summer rather than reward him for his stellar 2024-25 season. As it stands, the Clippers have virtually no significant financial commitments past the 2026-27 season, after which Leonard, Harden and Beal are all set to come off their books.
If this season continues to crumble, the Clippers will be forced to consider major changes to their roster core, front office or coaching staff long before July 2027. Indeed, following years of heavy spending and win-now trades, the Clippers find themselves in one of the most challenging long-term positions of any NBA team.
Unlike other bottom-dwellers, such as the Wizards and Dallas Mavericks, the Clippers do not possess any recent lottery picks to build around. To make matters worse, they have ceded control of multiple future first-round picks in past trades. No matter how badly this season goes, the Clippers’ 2026 first-round pick is controlled by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In a nightmare scenario, the juggernaut Thunder could claim the No. 1 pick in May’s draft lottery via the Clippers before winning its second straight championship in June. Oklahoma City, of course, is led by reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was drafted by the Clippers and traded to the Thunder in 2019 after his rookie season.
Frustration is mounting within portions of the Clippers’ fan base, which has watched the franchise spin its tires without a playoff series victory since 2021 and understands how difficult it will be to rebuild without top-tier draft assets. As Jokic filleted the Clippers’ hapless defense Wednesday, the home crowd began emptying out early in the fourth quarter. Ballmer remained in his courtside seat, his arms folded across his chest.
“I’m upset, too,” Lue said before the loss. “When you don’t have your best player [in Leonard] and your third-best player in [Beal], it’s tough. When you structure a training camp and preseason around certain guys who are your core guys, and they aren’t there, it takes some time to get used to other guys taking on new roles. It takes a little time. My biggest thing is to stay patient, be patient. … To jump off the bandwagon right now is not fair. We’re going to be okay.”
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