Clippers' Russell Westbrook's Hand Injury Diagnosed as Fracture

The Los Angeles Clippers announced that guard Russell Westbrook suffered a fractured left hand during the team's home game against the Washington Wizards on Friday evening.

The 35-year-old Westbrook, a nine-time All-Star in his 16th NBA season, entered Friday averaging 11.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists. He has played in all 57 games for the Clips thus far.

As Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints noted, it appeared that Westbrook suffered the injury with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter and the Clips up 40-32.

Per Azarly, Westbrook "grabs at and flexes his hand multiple times immediately after trying to poke the ball out of Jordan Poole's hands."

Westbrook stayed in the game for about two more minutes before Paul George subbed in for him. He did not return.

As Law Murray of The Athletic wrote, the Clippers now have an "unprecedented hole in rotation" with the durable Westbrook gone. He's been a big catalyst for this team's success off the bench, but now someone else will have to pick up the slack from the reserves.

The door could potentially now be open for Bones Hyland, who hasn't seen much action of late:

Ultimately, there really isn't a clear replacement to fully take Westbrook's role and minutes (22.8 MPG entering Friday), so it'll be interesting to see how head coach Ty Lue handles this.

Hopefully Westbrook returns healthy ASAP and can contribute this season to a team that's entering the weekend just three games back of first in the Western Conference. Murray provided hope that he'll be back before the regular season ends.

For now, though, L.A. will have to play without him as the regular season's stretch run continues.