Blake Griffin is going to tough out the playoffs with a torn muscle

This could actually hurt the Clippers down the road.

RELATED: Blake Griffin to make late return this season

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Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is set to play in his first game since Christmas Day on Sunday against the Washington Wizards. He is coming back from a suspension stemming from an incident with a Clippers employee and from a lingering quad injury.

It seems that the quad injury has not fully healed and he said before practice on Saturday that he would be playing the rest of the season with a torn left quadriceps tendon.

"It just wasn't being allowed to heal. So, the tear's still there. It's just about managing the pain and getting through this. ... It's not like a new tear or re-tearing my [quad] in different places. It wasn't allowing the initial injury to completely heal."

Coach Doc Rivers doesn't have a minutes restriction on his star forward, but did say that the team will have to be careful in not overplaying him and potentially making his injury worse. With seven games left in the season, the Clippers and Griffin will have to figure out what kind of workload he can handle before deciding how the playoff rotation might look.