LOS ANGELES -- On the same night the LA Clippers welcomed back one starter, another starter re-exited the lineup because of injury.
Power forward Danilo Gallinari, who missed 13 games with a glute injury and returned to action this past Wednesday, missed Monday night's 96-91 win over the Toronto Raptors due to what coach Doc Rivers says is a new glute injury suffered in Gallinari's second game back Saturday against the Washington Wizards.
"He's out for probably a good couple of games," said Rivers, who was already without power forward Blake Griffin because of a left MCL sprain and point guard Patrick Beverley, who is out for the season after undergoing right knee surgery -- also opening night starters.
"I guess he took a pretty hard fall in the fourth quarter," Rivers added of Gallinari. "I honestly never saw it, then I got a call after the game about it, and then you go and look, and it was a pretty good fall."
Rookie two-way contract forward Jamil Wilson took Gallinari's place in the starting lineup Monday.
Gallinari was coming off a season-best 25-point outing in Saturday's win over the Wizards, and was averaging 13.4 points per game in his first season with the Clippers. Los Angeles is 6-5 when Gallinari plays and 3-10 when he doesn't.
Another Clippers opening night starter, Milos Teodosic, returned to the lineup for the first time since injuring his left plantar fascia on Oct. 21, his second game of the season. Teodosic, a 30-year-old NBA rookie from Serbia, played 20 minutes, scoring 12 points and getting 7 rebounds.
Rivers, careful not to make any conclusions about the season being defined by injury, is weary of losing yet another starter to a freak injury.
"It's been that type of season thus far," Rivers said. "Things can change. Right now, they are, they keep changing back to somebody getting hurt."
