LOS ANGELES — The last time DeAndre Jordan missed a game, Barack Obama was in the middle of his first term, the Clippers were headed to the lottery for the fifth straight season under new coach Vinny Del Negro, and Chris Paul was plying his trade in New Orleans for a team still known as the Hornets.
Jordan’s league-leading Ironman streak of 360 consecutive games played, which dated back to March 2011, was snapped on Wednesday not by an injury, but by Pneumonia. The illness left the Clippers without both of their frontcourt fixtures, as Blake Griffin has already been sidelined since Christmas with a quadriceps tear, and it left Paul in totally unchartered waters.