Gentlemen, start your Kia engines — Blake Griffin’s return is right around the corner.
The Clippers forward, who has been sidelined since late December with a partially torn left quad tendon, said on Friday that the plan is “definitely” for him to play on the team’s upcoming five-game road trip, per Dan Woike of the OC Register.
Blake Griffin said the plan is to definitely play on the Clippers next road trip.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) January 15, 2016
The trip begins for the Clippers on Thursday, January 21 at Cleveland and concludes on Wednesday, January 27 at Atlanta.
This news comes just days after head coach Doc Rivers said that he didn’t expect Griffin to be back any time soon. But apparently, the high-flying forward made rapid progress in his recovery, the extent of which not even his head coach was fully aware of. Either that, or Doc’s definition of “any time soon” is a bit unconventional.
Griffin was averaging 23.2 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game this season before going down. Surprisingly, the Clippers have yet to lose a game in his absence, going 9-0 without Griffin in the lineup. Much of it is due to the improvement in spacing with Paul Pierce starting in lieu of Griffin, who often gets trigger-happy with his long-two attempts.
But the Clippers have played a relatively easy slate of opponents over that span. Without Griffin around to slice up defenses from the elbows, pound the glass as a secondary rebounder next to DeAndre Jordan, command attention with his back-to-the-basket, and find cutters and shooters alike as the best passing big in the game right now, it’s bound to catch up to them soon.
Thankfully however, the Clippers, currently at 26-13, should be getting their five-time All-Star back in about a week’s time, a big boost as they continue to claw for seeding and respect in the second-tier of the Western Conference standings.
Image Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
H/T Rotoworld
