Clippers Doc Rivers expects Lou Williams to join team in Orlando

The 4th and final regular season game between the Clippers and Lakers will kick off the NBA’s first day of action on July 30.

Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams has been the subject of much speculation over the past few weeks regarding whether he would go to the Walt Disney World restart site. Williams had told the Los Angeles Times’ Andrew Grief that he was 50-50 on joining his team in the restart and Williams also expressed some exasperation on twitter with some of the league’s social distancing policies outside of games while they’re at Disney World. But his head coach Doc Rivers believes the two-time defending 6th Man of the Year will join the Clippers, as they are one of the three biggest favorites, alongside the Lakers and Bucks, to win the championship.

Rivers told this to reporters on a conference call Wednesday.

Williams has been a key to the Clippers success over the last two seasons. This season, he is their third-leading scorer, averaging 18.7 points per game. He’s also second on the team behind Kawhi Leonard in free-throws made per game.

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NBA to test for performance-enhancing drugs, not recreational in Orlando

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Monday that the league will indeed test for performance-enhancing drugs.

For at least a weekend, it looked like the NBA’s focus for testing at the Orlando campus would focus only on COVID-19. That led many to ask the question, will performance-enhancing drugs now be allowed? Well, it was clarified on Monday that no, in fact, they will not be.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Monday that the NBA will indeed test for PEDs during the restart of the season at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, but that the league will still not test players for recreational drugs. Also on Monday, Charlotte Hornets guard Malik Monk was reinstated after a violating the league’s anti-drug policy.

The Lakers have had several players get notable surprise drug tests over the past year, including Danny Green doing so after a rare dunk and Alex Caruso getting tested following a photoshopped photo of him looking very inflated. However, that means that those two, as well as the rest of the players in the bubble, should expect to be tested for performance-enhancing drugs. But while the league won’t be testing for recreational drugs such as cannabis, Florida is a medical-only state, meaning that only people with medical cards can have cannabis, while recreational possession remains criminalized.

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