Blake Griffin/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers
Blake Griffin will not have played for three months and a week when he takes the floor with his Clippers for a game against the Washington Wizards on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Staples Center.
He had a partially torn left quad tendon. He still does, actually. He had a fractured right hand because he punched team assistant equipment manager Matias Testi on Jan. 23. For that, he served a four-game suspension, and also lost a fifth game’s pay for his punch-related injury.
Griffin, who has apologized for his actions, was asked Saturday what he’s learned about himself through this ordeal.
“Yeah, I learned a lot,” he said before practice. “But those things are for me. You learn a lot about a lot of people and you kind of figure out a lot of things. But those are things, like I said, for me.”
When Griffin plays for the first time after missing 45 consecutive games, it will be for more than Griffin.
“We’re unbelievably excited to have him back on the court,” point guard Chris Paul said. “It’s big for our team and big for the organization, big for our fans. But at the same time, me, J.J. (Redick) and DJ (DeAndre Jordan) were talking about when you get one of the top players in the league back on the court, I think it’s up to us not to demand too much from him right away.”
That’s easier said than done, Paul said.
“As soon as he’s on the court, I’m going to want to give him the ball every time down,” he said. “But we’ve gotta let him work his way back in.”
Griffin described himself as “Very, very eager” to play. He doesn’t want to get too carried away his first game, though, because he won’t know what he can or can’t do until he gets in there. That includes how many minutes he might play.
“Yeah, it’s tough because you want to play a lot and you want to make up for missed time,” he said. “But … I’ve gotta be patient and only do what my body allows me to do.”
Coach Doc Rivers said he’ll keep an eye on Griffin.
“You just have to watch, you’ve just gotta be careful,” Rivers said. “You don’t want to throw a guy out there and him get injured because you’re overplaying him.”
One thing’s for sure, Griffin won’t be watching this Clippers game on a TV set or from the bench in street clothes.
“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s never fun. You never want to leave your teammates out there, and this past week was especially tough having to sit the four games, you know, for my hand.”
Quad tear still there
Griffin found out about his quad injury the day after Christmas. He was cleared to practice March 26, which means it took three full months to get the injury healed enough to where he can play. Griffin explained.
“It was kind of – I don’t want to say misdiagnosed – but we weren’t addressing the initial problem, the main problem,” he said. “So everything I was doing was putting more stress on my knee, so a small tear became a three-month thing because I wasn’t doing the right thing until we figured it out.”
Griffin said the tear is still there and may have to be addressed again in the off-season.
“It’s just about managing the pain and getting through this,” Griffin said.
Rivers couldn’t say if surgery will be an option after the season.
“I’m hoping not, obviously,” he said. “Especially with the legs, you don’t ever want surgery. But it did take a while to figure out exactly what the problem was and how severe it was. And so I’m glad we figured it out.”
