Blake Griffin says LA Clippers need to treat everyone like Cavaliers
The LA Clippers dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road 113-94, and Blake Griffin knows they had the perfect mindset. It just needs to continue.
The LA Clippers, whether it’s been closing out playoff series or ensuring that they take the lead against weak opponents and don’t let up, have dealt with this issue in the past. The issue being that they treat every game the same way, as if their opponents are the reigning NBA champions or it’s a Game 7 in the playoffs. No, the 19th game of the season against the Brooklyn Nets doesn’t carry the same weight as a pivotal contest, but the point is that the Clippers need the right approach to maintain the same level of intensity and defensive success. Precisely as they did against the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road in Thursday’s 113-94 win, which is what Blake Griffin wants to repeat.
Griffin simply wants the right attitude to continue after it came back against none other than the defending champs, as he said to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register:
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“It’s important to get this type of win. But we can’t just be up for games like this. I think that’s the big thing. You have to treat Brooklyn like we treated the Cavs. We have to treat every team like we treat the Cavs or Warriors or whoever it might be.
“Doc talks about it all the time and we talk about all the time – give everybody respect.”
The Clippers dominated the rebound battle 47-36, rediscovered some of their defensive aggression to make matters far worse for the sloppy Cavs, forcing 18 turnovers and 40.6 percent shooting. On top of that, the Clippers’ offense was locked in, led by Griffin orchestrating the team as a floor general and matching his career-high of 11 assists.
Crushing the reigning champion Cavs on the road is the perfect turnaround performance for the Clippers, outside of dominating the Golden State Warriors at the Oracle, of course. They displayed the level of two-way play we know they’re capable of and saw throughout the first couple of weeks of the season, so whether they can keep it going again after a slump that any team is bound to have at some point is what we need to focus on now.
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“I think we played the right way,” Chris Paul said to Woike. “Played with the right spirit.” Both Paul and Griffin are right, and they’ll be key to setting the LA Clippers’ tone going forward.
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