Tippett injured his left shoulder in a tackling attempt during the second quarter and was substituted from the game at half-time.
The injury was diagnosed as a sprain, but the club won't know the severity of the sprain or how long Tippett will spend on the sidelines until the swelling subsides.
Tippett joins talented forwards Taylor Walker (knee) and Jason Porplyzia (shoulder), midfielder David Mackay (shoulder) and defenders Phil Davis (shoulder) and Scott Stevens (illness) on the injury list.
Coach Neil Craig conceded the injury-hit Crows weren't good enough to compete with the better teams in the competition, and said Tippett's likely absence would be yet another test for the struggling club.
"The squad that we had at the start of the year is becoming depleted," Craig said.
"It will be a really testing time for our footy club because we can't keep getting injuries like that.
"[Our tall forward options are] pretty slim. I don't know whether we could do it week after week, but we kicked five goals in the third quarter with a small forward line and Kurt wasn't there.
"Does Kurt Tippett make our forward line look bigger and stronger? Of course he does, but if he's not there we're going to have to think it through and pick someone to play there."
Adelaide played well when it was kicking with the aid of the breeze in the first and third quarters, outscoring the Eagles eight-goals-to-two, but fell away in the second and fourth terms.
The Crows conceded six unanswered goals in the second quarter to trail by 44 points at half-time, but showed fight that had been lacking in the losses to North Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions in the last fortnight, to close to within 11 points at the final change.
Patrick Dangerfield had an opportunity to cut the margin to six points at the start of the fourth quarter, but his shot at goal missed everything and West Coast put an end to the home team's comeback with a goal at the other end.
"In comparison to the last two weeks we saw some good signs, but it was still nowhere near to the standard that we want," Craig said.
"The first quarter and the third quarter were our two best quarters for the last three weeks.
"We need to have a balance in some of the things we did well today versus the poor play."
Craig also defended his decision to allow West Coast premiership player Shannon Hurn to play as a loose man across half-back in the first half.
Hurn, who was stationed in front of Tippett, repelled countless Adelaide attacks and picked up nine possessions and six marks before being made more accountable after half-time.
"We were trying to get more people around the stoppage, and do some better work at stoppages," Craig said.
"After half-time, we reverted to playing even numbers, which meant we took away some of the balance we wanted at stoppages.
"You could argue it had a desired effect because our third quarter was our best quarter, but we were still playing that way in the fourth quarter [when we were outscored six goals to two].
"In the second quarter, we were trying to stop the scoreboard ticking over by putting more numbers in defence. The ball was just streaming through the midfield and [the holes] were at the other end of the ground, that we were trying to plug."
Katrina Gill covers Adelaide news for afl.com.au. Follow her on Twitter: @AFL_KatrinaGil
