What you missed this week in the NBA: The wild, wild East

5. Bradley shut down

A few weeks ago, during the trade deadline, Avery Bradley was one of the premier assets on the block. When he was sent to Los Angeles as a part of the deal that sent Blake Griffin to the Pistons, Clippers fans were ecstatic to see the excellent defender and exciting player their team had received. Unfortunately, they haven’t had anything but a sample of their potential future star as Bradley has been sidelined with an injury since Feb. 14. Back in February, Bradley suffered an adductor injury and despite missing time, the injury still looms.

It was announced earlier in the week that Bradley would miss the rest of the regular season. Presuming the Clippers either miss the playoffs or are subject to an early exit, Bradley will miss the entire rest of the season. He’ll be undergoing surgery to repair his adductor and rectus abdomnis muscles, which takes anywhere from six to eight weeks to fully recover.

The injury strikes a blow to the Clippers’ hopes of any sort of playoff run. As it stands, the Clippers sit in the seventh seed atop a three-team tiebreaker 15.5 games back of Houston. Los Angeles holds just a one-game advantage over the No. 10 seed in the tight Western Conference playoff race. If the playoffs were to begin today, the Clippers would be facing off against the Golden State Warriors to open the postseason. Over the course of the next few weeks, the Clippers have one of the league’s toughest schedules. Games against the Thunder, Blazers and T-Wolves headline their next three matchups, in addition to playing Houston on Thursday night. It’s hard to imagine the Clippers making it too far without Bradley in the squad, so fans will likely have to wait until next season to see the defensive stud sport the blue and red once again.