This Saturday, April 15, 2017, file photo, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, center, is helped off the court by center Boris Diaw, right, and guard George Hill, left, as coach Quin Snyder watches after Gobert injured his knee during the first half in Game 1 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, in Los Angeles. Gobert will not play in Game 3 against the Clippers after hyperextending his left knee and suffering a bone contusion in the series opener. The series is tied 1-1. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
LOS ANGELES — The Utah Jazz will again be without star center Rudy Gobert on Friday when they host the Los Angeles Clippers in game three of their NBA first-round playoff series.
The French big man, dubbed the “Stifle Tower” for his defensive prowess, hyperextended his left knee early in Utah’s game one victory over the Clippers.
Without him for game two, the Jazz gave up 60 points in the paint in falling 99-91 in Los Angeles.
The team confirmed in their injury report that Gobert was out for Friday’s game.
Jazz coach Quin Snyder said Thursday that Gobert was “getting better every day.” But he said the team wouldn’t try to rush him back.
“We’ve been conservative all year in the sense that we’re never going to encourage any player… to do something to put himself in a situation by playing that could compromise his long-term health,” Snyder told the Deseret News.
Gobert was hurt when he banged knees with Clippers forward Luc Mbah a Moute. Power forward Derrick Favors will again move to center with Gobert on the sidelines.
But Snyder admitted the team had no way to “replicate” Gobert, the first player in club history to have 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 200 blocked shots in a single season.