Blake Griffin tries a little marketing in Clippers’ 105-98 win over Milwaukee
Blake Griffin had some last-minute campaigning to do, after all, considering the polls happen to be closing in a few hours.
Polls? Actually, that would be voting for the All-Star reserves by NBA coaches, the ballots due Tuesday. Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro already made his list for the Western Conference reserves and didn’t need to check it twice.
You might say Griffin’s cause was helped by the Clippers’ win against Milwaukee. The Clippers beat the Bucks, 105-98, on Monday night at Staples Center, extending their winning streak at home to nine games behind 32 points and a showy windmill dunk from Griffin.
He obviously would have had Del Negro’s vote but coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players, but even Del Negro said that wins had to be a factor in the equation.
This would be a Clippers team record, the home winning streak. And the Clippers (19-28) matched their winning total of two seasons ago, doing so by game No. 47. But, of course, that horrible season enabled them to get a decent shot at Griffin in the draft lottery.
Just an interesting bit of historical perspective now that Griffin is poised to make the All-Star team in his rookie season.
If it comes down to it, and it is required, it is a good guess that Griffin would likely have the vote of the man who really matters, NBA Commissioner David Stern, who will have to select a replacement for the injured Yao Ming.
Griffin had another double-double — making it 39 games, in all — with a 32-point, 11-rebound performance. He has had eight games of 30 points or more, all coming at home, and was boosted by DeAndre Jordan’s season-high 16 points.
Jordan had seven rebounds and five blocked shots. Randy Foye had 20 points and Baron Davis had 18 points and seven assists and had a big rebound down the stretch to seal the win.
Griffin had some competition from Jordan in the dunk-of-the-night category when Jordan went high over Jon Brockman with 37.5 seconds left in the third quarter.
Brockman looked almost like a comic figure as he clutched Jordan’s jersey, attempting to hang on and not crash to the ground.
“I think we were both falling,” Jordan said, laughing. “He like tugged on my jersey a little bit. I thought I was about to fall but ended up regaining my balance.
“Eric [Bledsoe] just threw it up there, man. He had confidence in me to finish it. Just threw it down and got the crowd and the team into it.”
Considering this was a final chance to impress the voting coaches, Griffin was up to the challenge, doing his share of posterizing and frustrating the Bucks.
So much so that former Clipper Corey Maggette got Griffin in a, well, sensitive area with a little more than a minute left in the first half.
Not like the Reggie Evans mauling of Chris Kaman in 2006 but quite uncomfortable looking nonetheless.
Earlier, Griffin wowed the crowd with his breakaway windmill dunk, a rare chance to figure out what he wanted to break out from his long list of dunks.
“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” Griffin said. “I knew I had to do something or I would never hear the end of it. I just pulled that one out. Something like that, I was wide open.”
A tribute to Dominique Wilkins, perhaps?
“Yeah, I guess so,” Griffin said.
Nice to see the kid appreciates the classics.
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