The Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin will have arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday and is expected to miss three to six weeks, the team announced Monday.

Griffin missed 47 games last regular season because of a quadriceps injury and a broken hand and saw his playoffs come to an end in Game 4 of the first round when he re-injured his left quadriceps.

The Clippers, make no mistake, can’t afford for him to be gone too long.

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The 27-year-old Griffin was averaging a team-high 21.9 points, 8.9 rebounds (second behind center DeAndre Jordan) and 4.6 assists per game this season (second behind point guard Chris Paul). After starting the season 14-2 and ranking second in the league in offensive and defensive rating to that point, they have come back down to earth in recent weeks.

Not only have the Clippers gone 6-6 in their past 12 games, but their defense has been on the serious decline (18th during that span) and their offense has also fallen off (eighth in that stretch; numbers provided by NBA.com/stats). At 20-8, they are currently fourth in the Western Conference.

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