Blake Griffin to undergo surgery to remove staph infection in elbow

Already losers of three straight games for the first time in almost two years, the Los Angeles Clippers will now have to make do without Blake Griffin for the foreseeable future. 

The team announced that their star power forward will undergo surgery on Monday to remove a staph infection in his right elbow. That will sideline him for at least the next three games leading into the All-Star break, and possibly much longer. Griffin will sit out the All-Star game, which he was voted into as a starter, and be re-evaluated after the break.

ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reports that initial projections have pegged Griffin's recovery timetable at four-to-six weeks, though the Clippers are holding out a faint hope that he can return in as soon as two weeks, according to ESPN's Marc Stein. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, staph infections are caused by typically innocuous bacteria that can become life-threatening if allowed to enter the bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart. 

Griffin had a minor procedure on the elbow earlier in the season, draining it after it became inflamed. 

On top of the frightening nature of the condition, the Clippers have to deal with losing one of their two most important players while in the middle of an absolutely hellacious stretch of schedule. 

Even taking a relatively optimistic view and projecting a return in four weeks, Griffin would miss eight games against current Western Conference playoff teams, seven of which are ahead of the Clippers in the standings and one (the San Antonio Spurs) that's just a half-game back. And that doesn't even account for games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls.

Doc Rivers says he doesn't panic, but with a dearth of frontcourt depth behind Griffin (Spencer Hawes is expected to start in his place), his Clippers could find themselves scrapping for a playoff spot in a blink. Rivers even admitted to being nervous about the uncertain nature of the injury. 

Griffin leads the Clippers (and all NBA power forwards, for that matter) in usage rate. He's their top scorer and second-best playmaker, and it's unclear how their league-best offense will function without him.  

The one silver lining here is that this year's All-Star break is longer than ordinary, and the Clippers will have eight days off.