NBA: Clippers, Warriors battle injuries, each other for playoff contention

Two teams fighting for NBA play-in positioning and a possible tiebreaker clash Monday night as the Los Angeles Clippers visit the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco.

The teams split their previous meetings this season, each winning on their home court. In October, the Warriors dominated a 98-79 victory, but the Clippers returned the favor in January, forcing Jimmy Butler III into a missed 16-foot attempt at the buzzer to fall 103-102 at home.

Coming off a 137-117 home rout of the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, the Clippers moved into ninth place in the Western Conference playoff race. They will face the Warriors 2½ games behind the eighth-place team.

Los Angeles will play the second night of a back-to-back in this matchup, while Golden State is facing deeper injury concerns. Star guard Stephen Curry will miss his 11th straight game after a knee evaluation Saturday showed progress, but not enough to clear him to play. Curry is expected to remain sidelined for at least four more games before his next checkup.

"It's just about each day. Can you stack good days? And I've done that," Curry told ABC after Saturday’s 129-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. "Hopefully, they can unleash me on the court sooner rather than later. This is a weird one. It's kind of unpredictable how it'll heal. But every day since All-Star week has been progress. That's all I can ask for."

The Warriors are also missing Butler for the season due to an ACL tear and newly acquired Kristaps Porzingis, who has been sidelined by illness and will not play Monday.

Despite alternating wins and losses over their last five games, the Warriors enter the matchup in better form than the Clippers, who had dropped three straight before Sunday’s win over New Orleans.

Reserve Jordan Miller logged over 29 minutes in the victory, potentially allowing Kawhi Leonard to manage both ends of the back-to-back. Leonard had played 14 consecutive games—including three back-to-backs—before sitting out Thursday’s home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves with a sore left ankle. He returned Sunday for 29 minutes, slightly below his 14-game average of 30.6 minutes.

The Clippers are set to unveil a new addition Monday as guard Darius Garland makes his team debut following a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Garland, the son of former Warriors guard Winston Garland, has not played since January 14 due to a sprained right big toe.

"When it first happened, I was kind of skeptical," Garland said of joining the Clippers. "But I couldn’t turn down the chance to play with another Hall of Famer (Leonard) and have the ball in my hands nearly 99% of the time."

—Field Level Media/Reuters