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Jamal Crawford exits with calf injury

LOS ANGELES - Clippers guard Jamal Crawford suffered a strained left calf in Wednesday's game against the Houston Rockets and did not play in the second half.

Crawford, who had eight points in 16 minutes, was taken out of the game with 13 seconds left in the second quarter and made his way to toward the locker room before halftime. The Clippers said he would be out for the rest of the game and would be re-evaluated on Thursday.

After the game, coach Doc Rivers didn't have an update on Crawford's condition but was worried because Crawford's injury occurred without contact.

"Personally I'm a little concerned because no one was around him," Rivers said. "When guys get injured when nobody's around them, that always scares me. We'll know more tomorrow. He said he felt better. I think he'll be OK, but I've been around the league awhile, so that's my concern."

Despite being a candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year award, Crawford has started 23 games this season in place of J.J. Redick, who is sidelined indefinitely with a bulging disk in his lower back. With Crawford and Redick out, point guard Darren Collison started the second half alongside Chris Paul.

Crawford is averaging 19 points, 3.2 assists and 2.3 rebounds this season, his best season since he was with the New York Knicks in 2008-09.

Over his past 19 games heading into Wednesday's game, Crawford was averaging 24.2 points, nearly a 7.5-point increase over his scoring average through the first 40 games of the season.

Before Crawford's injury, the Clippers were already interested in signing former All-Star swingman Danny Granger, who completed a contract buyout Wednesday with the Philadelphia 76ers and is scheduled to clear waivers at 5 p.m. ET Friday.

"Of course!" Rivers said when asked if he wanted to sign Granger. "A guy with that talent you want to look at. I don't think it will be up to us. I think it will be up to Danny. I think there will be a lot of teams going after him and there should be. ... We're going to have our day hopefully to talk."

The Clippers met with Granger's representatives during the game and have nudged ahead of the San Antonio Spurs in the race for his services, sources close to the process told ESPN.com on Wednesday night.

Information from ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne was used in this report.