A Clippers home opener is rarely nationally televised, yet the ESPN crew was at Staples center on Wednesday, and with good reason. Blake Griffin was making his debut for L.A. and showed flashes of brilliance, especially early.
It wasn’t enough to keep the Blazers from starting the season 2-0, however, as Griffin and the Clips were outscored in the fourth and fell by a final of 98-88.
First Quarter: Portland 31, Clippers 23
Blake Griffin did not disappoint in his debut, scoring his first NBA basket on a one-handed jam off an alley-oop pass from Randy Foye, and a little later, cleaned up a missed 3-pointer from Ryan Gomes with another high-flying throw down.
Griffin finished the first quarter with nine points on 4 of 6 shooting and five rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end. If you’re looking for any negatives, one might be that Griffin seemed to be a little lost on the offensive end, often wandering a bit and not being quite sure what to do in a given set. He was forced to the bench with 2:52 remaining due to picking up his second personal foul.
Trail Blazers 98, Clippers 88: Box Score | Video: Blake Griffin’s Debut Dunk
Second Quarter: Blazers 54, Clippers 49
Griffin was back to start the second and managed to play over 11 minutes without picking up that third foul. He wasn’t quite as dynamic as he was in the first but did pick up two more boards (to pump his rebound total to seven) and got an assist after he was isolated against Marcus Camby on the wing and found a cutting Eric Gordon for a driving layup.
Rasual Butler came off the bench for L.A. to have the big scoring quarter, hitting three of his four 3-point attempts en route to 12 points in the period. But Brandon Roy was just as effective and even more efficient, scoring 11 in just under eight minutes, giving him 18 total in the first half.
Andre Miller picked up a “respect the game” technical for doing almost nothing in reacting to a non-call on one of his shot attempts. The call actually did the Clippers more harm than good, however, as they had numbers out on the fast break when the refs stopped play to ring Miller up.
Third Quarter: Clippers 71, Blazers 70
The Clippers ended the third up by one, thanks to 12 from Eric Gordon in the period, along with the fact that L.A. was able to hold the previously hot Roy scoreless.
Your obligatory Blake Griffin highlight came with 3:20 to play, when the versatile rookie led a fast break and dished to Gordon for a driving layup that cut the Blazer lead to just two at 68-66.
As L.A.’s long-time play-by-play man Ralph Lawler might say, fasten your seat belts.
Fourth Quarter: Blazers 98, Clippers 88
The Clips ran out of gas, and for the second straight night, Portland used a late run to bury its opponent and come away with the victory. An 11-0 run by the Blazers put them up 89-80 with 3:48 to go, and was capped by a three-pointer from LaMarcus Aldridge as the 24-second clock expired. Camby cleanly rejected Kaman down low after the Clippers’ timeout, and Aldridge hit two free throws on the other end to push Portland’s lead to double digits, which all but sealed it.
Griffin’s final stat line: 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting, 14 rebounds (nine offensive), four assists, a steal and two turnovers in 39 minutes of action.
Not. Bad.
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