Clippers' Billups done for season; Nuggets' Gallinari to miss a month

By Paul Levine Feb 8, 2012, 1:22 GMT

Los Angeles - Chauncey Billups is done for the remainder of the season after an MRI on Tuesday revealed the LA Clippers' starting point guard has a torn left Achilles tendon.

Billups was averaging 15 points per game and has been a key to the early success of the Clippers, who sit in second place in the Western Conference with a 15-7 record.

Randy Foye is expected to replace Billups in the starting lineup, while Mo Williams will continue to come off the bench.

'I'll be ready for whatever they want from me,' Foye told the LA Times. 'I just hope Chauncey is OK. But as a team, we just have to step up.'

Billups suffered the season-ending injury midway through the fourth quarter of Monday's 107-102 overtime road victory over the Orlando Magic. He fell to the court trying to change directions while chasing down the ball after missing a three-point attempt.

'I was backpedaling and tried to retreat and go back forward,' Billups told reporters after the game. 'I couldn't get up. I got up one time and fell back down. At that point, I was just trying to get out of the game.'

Unable to put any weight on the left leg, Billups was helped off court and taken to the locker room.

'It's a tough one,' Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro told ESPN.

'He was just getting everything figured out. He was playing great. He'd just hit three threes in a row, then he turns the wrong way running back down the court. It's tough, but we're going to do whatever we can as a team an organization to move forward.'

Elsewhere, the Denver Nuggets' top scorer, small forward Danilo Gallinari, is expected to be sidelined for the next month after suffering a left ankle sprain in the third quarter of Monday's 99-90 loss to the Houston Rockets, the team announced.

X-rays found a chip fracture in his left foot that doctors determined occurred before the Italian ever played professional basketball.

Gallinari will remain in a walking boot for the next three to five days.

'Four weeks - if it can be faster, it's better,' he told the Denver Post. 'These kinds of things, you want to take your time and have it heal in the right way.

Teammate Ty Lawson said it's a big blow to lose Gallinari and his team-high 17 points per game for the 15-10 Nuggets.

'He's a 6-foot-10 person who gets into the lane, gets to the basket and also can create for others,' Lawson said. 'So for him to go down, it's going to be tough for us right now. We've got to all come together and make sure we keep one another up.'