Blake Griffin lays blame for loss at Denver at his own talented feet

Clippers forward Blake Griffin had just been named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday when he took the floor later that night at Denver. The quest: a 12th consecutive victory.

Griffin scored 26 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and doled out four assists. But he made just 7 of 25 shots from the field, and he seemed to want to take the blame for the defeat.

“Too many missed shots, too many small errors here and there,” Griffin said on the Clippers’ website. “Everybody played hard, but I just put us in a bad position.”

It was the second leg of back-to-back games, but center DeAndre Jordan did not want to use that as an alibi.

“Back-to-backs are always tough, especially because we’ve got guys down,” he said, referring to his team’s injuries. “But that’s no excuse. Every team has back-to-backs and it’s tough. You’ve just got to find a way to win. That’s all.”

The Clippers have been given a couple of days off by coach Doc Rivers and won’t practice again until Thursday. They play host to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday at 7:30  p.m.