{"id":103414,"date":"2025-12-21T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/103414\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T05:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:16:08","slug":"clippers-rule-center-ivica-zubac-out-with-ankle-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/103414\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers rule center Ivica Zubac out with ankle injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — Clippers<\/a> big man Ivica Zubac<\/a> exited the first half of Saturday’s intracity showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> due to a left ankle injury and will not return, the team announced.<\/p>\n

Zubac went to the floor in a heap late in in the first quarter and immediately hobbled back to the locker room for evaluation after Brook Lopez<\/a> subbed in for him.<\/p>\n

Zubac finished with 5 points and 2 rebounds in 11 minutes.<\/p>\n

Coming into the game, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes<\/a> said Zubac — who entered the game averaging 16 points and 11.5 rebounds — would be a challenge to contend with.<\/p>\n

“Zu is a dog, man,” Hayes said after the Lakers’ shootaround Saturday morning. “He’s, honestly, I feel like one of the most slept-on bigs in the league, man. If you play him, you know he’s like that. Zu has been like that for years.”<\/p>\n

The Lakers (19-7) are No. 4 in the Western Conference. The Clippers (6-21) are 15th — dead last, after finishing fifth last season.<\/p>\n

Before the Lakers game, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he challenged his team to finish the season 35-20, which would extend the franchise’s streak to 15 straight seasons with a .500 record or better.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — Clippers big man Ivica Zubac exited the first half of Saturday’s intracity showdown with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[56167,750,112,114,113,8693,129,100,56166],"class_list":{"0":"post-103414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-56167","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-fresno","11":"tag-fresno-headlines","12":"tag-fresno-news","13":"tag-la-clippers","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-zubac-ivica"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}