The LA Clippers were shorthanded for most of their 118-100 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday as star forward Kawhi Leonard was forced to leave the game.

Leonard suffered back spasms between the first two quarters. He played the entire first quarter, finishing with six points, two rebounds and two assists on 2-for-4 shooting. However, he was seen leaving the Clippers’ downtown arena during the second quarter.

ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk reports Leonard went home to rest rather than sit in discomfort in the arena.

Per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Leonard had been dealing with back issues recently but still wanted to play against the Wolves.

“Yeah, he’s been dealing with it for a couple of days. Back spasms and … Wasn’t sure if he was going to go this morning,” Lue said. “But he came to shootaround, got some treatment, did what he had to do and tried to get on the court and play today and it just didn’t loosen up for him.”

Lue said after the game he wasn’t sure if Leonard would travel with the team Wednesday for Thursday’s game in Chicago (8 ET, NBA League Pass). Four of the Clippers’ next five games are on the road and seven of their 10 remaining games this month are away from Crypto.com Arena.

This has been a markedly healthy season for Leonard as he has appeared in 58 games — his most since playing in 57 in 2019-20 — and is averaging 23.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Heading into this season, Leonard had missed 147 of a possible 308 games since joining the Clippers in 2019. He did not play at all in the 2021-22 season after suffering a torn ACL in the 2021 playoffs.

LA (41-23) is in the thick of the chase for No. 1 in the Western Conference, trailing the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (45-20) by 3 1/2 games and the No. 3-seeded Timberwolves (45-21) by 1/2 game. The Clippers are 5-6 since the All-Star break, going 4-0 against teams with losing records and 1-6 against teams over .500.

The Clippers loss on Sunday to the Bucks was the first time all season that they were without Leonard and fellow star Paul George, who have each missed six of 63 games. They had 12 games (and were 3-9) when they were without both of their All-Stars last season and the 1,362 minutes they’ve played together this season is already 334 more than they had played in any of their previous four seasons together.

Information from The Associated Press and NBA.com’s John Schuhmann was used in this report.