Clippers center Ivica Zubac suffered a Grade 2 sprain of his left ankle on Saturday in the team’s victory against the Lakers and will be out for at least three weeks. He will be re-evaluated at that time, according to the team.
Zubac went up for a shot in the first quarter near the basket, but landed directly on LeBron James’ foot, sending the 7-footer hard to the court. Zubac immediately grabbed his ankle and stayed down as play continued the other way. He then hobbled to the bench and then to the locker room and did not return.
Back-up Brook Lopez is expected to take Zubac’s place in the starting lineup, beginning with Tuesday’s home game against the Houston Rockets. Power forward John Collins will see his workload increase as well. Collins scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting with 12 rebounds after Zubac went out with 1:14 left in the first quarter.
Zubac had five points and two rebounds before getting hurt.
“I was just trying to step up,” Collins said after the game. “Shout out to my guy Big Zu (who) went down tonight and it’s next man up, (I) got to step up and obviously play more of a center role, which means more rebounding, more paint patrolling. So just trying to step up and be productive. And that was really the biggest thing for me.”
Zubac was averaging 15.6 points and 11.1 rebounds through the first 28 games this season, slightly down from last season’s 16.8 points and 12.8 rebounds. He missed only two games last season, starting 80.