The LA Clippers have ruled out point guard James Harden for Thursday night’s road game against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder because of a left calf contusion. Harden’s status for Saturday’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers is to be determined as well.
Harden, 36, initially injured himself Thursday in a 115-113 Clippers road loss against the Houston Rockets. He practiced Sunday with a sleeve on his left leg, one day after the Clippers had a film session and canceled a practice because of a lack of healthy players.
LA coach Tyronn Lue never mentioned Harden’s injury when meeting with the media over the weekend, but Harden played through a game-time decision tag Monday night in a 121-103 home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Other than LA’s disastrous performance earlier this month on the road against the Miami Heat that saw the Clippers get outscored by 39 points in Harden’s 19:51 of action, Monday night was Harden’s most ineffective full game of the season.
Asked Tyronn Lue about Ivica Zubac not being more involved in a non-Edey game (“every time he touches it, they double team him, so you tell me”) and if James Harden (calf) should have just been ruled out
“James wants to play every night” pic.twitter.com/Iqs0Yobjq2
— Law Murray 🎄 (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 16, 2025
Harden attempted only 10 shots on his way to scoring only 13 points in 31:17 on the court, failing to make any of his attempts inside the 3-point line and having moments when he failed to get back on defense or box out after shots. Afterward, Lue acknowledged Harden’s participation Monday night against the Grizzlies was more of a valiant effort than any confirmation Harden was strong enough to play well.
“James wants to play every night,” Lue said after Monday’s loss dropped LA’s record to 6-20. “Just having the mindset to try to gut it out for us was huge. And you could tell he wasn’t himself throughout the whole course of the game. And we just kept checking on him, kept trying to monitor it. And you know, just give him respect for just trying to get out there.”
Harden is the leading scorer (26.0 points) and passer (8.1 assists) on a Clippers team bereft of shot creation outside of himself and star teammate Kawhi Leonard. When Harden is off the floor, the Clippers have scored only 102.3 points per 100 possessions, 14.8 fewer than when the three-time scoring champion is on the floor. For context, the 30th-ranked offense of the Indiana Pacers scores 108.2 points per 100 possessions this season.
This will be the second game Harden misses this season. The previous absence was when Harden missed the Nov. 6 visit to the Phoenix Suns, a game that Leonard also sat out because of foot and ankle sprains. It was Bradley Beal’s penultimate game before a season-ending hip fracture, and the game Chris Paul played only the first half before being removed from the rotation because of a coach’s decision. LA lost that game in Phoenix 115-102. Paul is permanently inactive until the Clippers find a new team for him, leaving LA with guards Kris Dunn, Bogdan Bogdanović, rookie two-way contract Kobe Sanders and two-way contract RayJ Dennis.
Oklahoma City will be hosting the Clippers after losing in the NBA Cup semifinals Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder were originally scheduled to host the Clippers on Wednesday before the NBA moved the game to Thursday to avoid a potential back-to-back for Oklahoma City; instead of an NBA Cup championship appearance, the 24-2 Thunder will play the Clippers with four days off and Harden out of the lineup.
