Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin is back… kind of.
Step 1 to a return to normalcy for the Clippers: after missing nearly four months of play behind a fractured hand — also, a hampered quad — forward Blake Griffin has been cleared to return to practice by the team.
There are still hurdles to be cleared: Griffin has to be cleared to play by team doctors and after, work his way through the four game suspension handed down by the team, in cooperation with the NBA, behind Griffin’s attack on the team trainer that led to the prolonged injury absence.
Via ESPN’s Andrew Han, Doc Rivers is in favor of taking the process of Griffin’s return slow, keeping a keen eye on how the forward maneuvers on the floor as opposed to waiting on the 5-time All Star to work out rust kinks.
"“I don’t know yet. We’ll see. I doubt it, but I will see,” Rivers said before practice Saturday. “I don’t know if one practice is enough to — I think we got to activate him when we think he’s ready to play.“We just got to watch [Griffin]. If we go long today (at practice), which I don’t think we will — we will with some guys, but not that much — and he goes through the whole one and looks great, then that’s obviously something that we would have to think about. I don’t see that. I don’t think he’s going to do enough for us to feel comfortable yet. But I’m not sure yet.“It’s not about the rust, though. You’re going to have rust because you’re not playing basketball. It’s more just movement. He’s moving much better.”"
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A date being floated around for Griffin to be activated on to the Clippers’ active roster? Tomorrow, against the Denver Nuggets. That’d allow for Griffin to return to the floor on April 5 when the Clippers face off against the Lakers. Left over on the schedule would be six games: vs. Washington, @ Lakers, @ Jazz, vs. Mavericks, vs. Grizzlies, @ Suns.
Lacking in quality, that’s a sound group of teams for Griffin to regain his rhythm back, or venture close to 100% before the playoffs. Even in rust, Griffin will be a healthy addition to the Clippers as Paul Pierce‘s presence — everyone else’s as well – is running thin in the starting lineup.
Against fluff rosters early in Blake’s injury absence, the Clippers looked ‘better without Blake’ but a string of losses to quality teams disproves that theory and shows in plain sight this team won’t be going anywhere without Blake, though going anywhere may be this team’s destiny regardless.
Next: Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick come up clutch vs. Portland
All-in-all, these last few weeks of the season will be interesting, to see if Griffin can seamlessly blend into what the Clippers have done lately and if the team can catch a groove entering the postseason. But for now, the present: Griffin’s almost back, and things are kind of looking up for the franchise.