The Los Angeles Clippers have won seven of their last eight games, and to make things even better they got star forward Blake Griffin back earlier this week. Griffin will need some time to knock the rust off and get in a rhythm, but having him back now will allow him to do so and should prepare him for the playoffs.
Griffin was infamously out with a broken hand he suffered from punching a team equipment staffer, but before that he was dealing with a quad injury that kept him out of game action. Many people thought the silver lining in Griffin breaking his hand was that it would give his quad more time to heal, but that may not have been the case.
Griffin's quad is still hampering him even after all of that time off, and it may require offseason surgery. The 27-year-old forward was asked if he would need to address the quad with surgery this offseason, to which he responded by saying "probably".
Despite the potential need for surgery Griffin still plans to play through the injury for the rest of this season, although it will likely affect his level of play. In the two games since coming back Griffin has averaged 21 minutes while scoring just five points and grabbing four rebounds per game. Those numbers are nowhere close to what he usually averages, but head coach Doc Rivers did say they would be extremely careful with him when he returns.
Along the lines of proceeding with caution the Clippers have ruled Griffin out for their game on Friday against the Utah Jazz. Griffin has not suffered a setback, but they just want to rest him so that they could move him along slowly toward being in game shape.
The fact that Griffin's quad still isn't 100 percent is troublesome for the Clippers and their postseason hopes. Yes, the Clippers did play well while Griffin was out, but they won't truly reach their ceiling unless he is healthy and playing his best basketball. A quad injury for Griffin is likely worse than it would be for most, considering he relies on his athleticism a lot of times. The former Oklahoma Sooner does have a good mid-range jump shot now, but he still uses his athleticism to his advantage often, and not having that will likely prevent him from being the dominating type of player he was before getting hurt.
