If Blake Griffin is back, the Blazers don't have a shot against the Clippers
LOS ANGELES — Blake Griffin took three dribbles and barreled down the middle of paint, knocking Damian Lillard to the floor.
With an open path to the rim, Griffin dribbled once and rose to dunk, as he has done so many times before. Mason Plumlee rotated over to meet him at the rim, but it was too late.
Bang:
Griffin posterized Plumlee with a left-handed dunk, drawing a foul, as well as the loudest cheers and most excessive bench celebration since his return on April 3. He was only getting started.
From there, Griffin continued embarrassing Plumlee, dunking on him twice more in the third quarter, and effectively turning him into the Aron Baynes of this series:
Griffin's surprising performance aptly summarized the Clippers' Sunday night. No one knew what to expect from either heading into the first-round series with the Blazers, despite Griffin's track record and the Clippers' clear talent advantage.
Griffin's pedestrian play since returning from injury had many doubting whether he could recover and acclimate to a team that seemed to find its groove without him for 45 games. Given the uncertainty surrounding him, and the Clippers' recent playoff collapses, there were also concerns regarding the team's ability to close out an up-and-coming, scrappy underdog like the Blazers.
It was just one game, but Griffin — and the Clippers — set the bar for expectations on Sunday.
Griffin finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes -- his best game in nearly four months — guiding the Clippers to an impressive 115-95 thrashing of the Blazers and a 1-0 series lead. The win wasn't a shock, but the relative ease with which the Clippers won was.
“I thought he was great,” DeAndre Jordan said. “He scored the ball when he needed to score. He rebounded well, defended well, he got guys open looks. He's such a big key and a big part of our offense and our defense, so if he plays like that, we're a great team.”
Griffin played like the star we've become accustomed to in the postseason, taking advantage of mismatches in the post, crashing the boards like a madman, making plays for his teammates, and attacking the rim with reckless abandon.
Most impressive of all was the fact that Griffin dunked three times, which was more dunks than he had in the five games to finish out the season (just two). He wasn't as dominant or effective as the unanimous top-3 player he evolved into in last year's playoffs, but he was pretty darn close.
While it isn't fair to expect Griffin to perform at that level every night — he'll almost certainly have an off-game or two as he continues to readjust after sitting for so long — if he can produce like an All-Star-caliber player for the rest of the playoffs, the Clippers' ceiling immediately returns to preseason expectations: championship contention (though a second-round date with the Warriors almost certainly spells doom).
The Blazers will probably counter in Game 2, using a more aggressive defensive scheme to either double-team or shade help over toward Griffin when he drives or looks for a spot-up shooter. The problem with the Clippers, of course, is that they have an array of nearly equal offensive weapons, and there's no way you can stop them all.
"They have so many ways they can hurt you," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "I think it starts with Chris Paul, and that's difficult because you can't really take him out of the game. You can't double team because that just gives him an opportunity to make his teammates better. They have terrific outside shooting. They have good interior play, especially now with Blake [Griffin] back.
"It's very clear what their players do will. I don't know if you can necessarily lock in on one or two things against the Clippers, because they are pretty well-balanced and their roles are pretty well-defined."
The primary reason why Griffin was able to be so effective was because of Chris Paul (28 points, 11 assists), who set the tone of the game from the onset.
Paul got Griffin involved and engaged early (10 points in the first quarter), and then wisely chose his spots from there. The vast attention he commands opens the game up for Griffin, DeAndre Jordan (18 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks), J.J. Redick (17 points) and Jamal Crawford (13 points), among others.
It's a pick-your-poison problem, with no clear solution.
The Blazers' conservative defensive scheme lends itself to allowing mid-range jumpers and floaters, both of which are dying arts in today's game. That's not uncommon in today's game, but playing such a style against Paul is an issue, because Paul has mastered the mid-range game, and routinely made the Blazers pay for forcing him into arguably his greatest offensive strength.
"We force guys off the three-point line, make them shoot mid-range, pull-ups and floaters, and we live with the result," Lillard said. "Unfortunately, that's his game. He loves that area. We contested a lot of those shots. In his isolations we were physical, we were right there. A player at his level, he's going to make those shots sometimes and tonight he made them."
Again, the Blazers are going to make adjustments. It's unclear what those will be — they can't drastically change their style of play at this point, or acquire new personnel — and how the Clippers will react. Game 1 could have been an anomaly — Griffin could struggle the rest of the way — and if that's the case, this will be a drawn-out, competitive series.
But if Blake Griffin is doing Blake Griffin things, it doesn't really matter what the Blazers do. With a banged-up Griffin, the Blazers had a decent chance of upsetting the Clippers. With a healthy and thriving Griffin, though, the Blazers have absolutely no shot at winning this series.
Jovan Buha covers the NBA for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @jovanbuha.
