There's No Room to Question Blake Griffin's Superstar Credentials Anymore
Blake Griffin is a machine.
And not just the kind that creates gravity-defying highlights, despite what so many of his critics have said in the past.
Long billed as a style-over-substance player, he's not just dropping jaws anymore. He's stuffing stat sheets, dominating nearly every aspect of the game and, most importantly, fueling the Los Angeles Clippers' rise as legitimate contenders.
In other words, he's checking every box to qualify as a full-fledged superstar.
The Griffin Force has evolved into something perhaps best described as NBA magic. He's almost a point guard trapped in a power forward's 6'10", 250-pound body, only with the athleticism of a high-flying wing and the tenacity of a bruising big added to his ridiculous recipe.
Oh, and he's unquestionably becoming the team's best player. That isn't a title lost by all-world point god Chris Paul, but rather one Griffin snatched like a lob pass above the rim.
"I tell Blake every single night that he's the guy on the court," said Jamal Crawford, via USA Today's Sam Amick. "No matter who's on the court, he's the guy. He has grown into that."
The Clippers shouldn't have a playoff pulse right now. Not with their paper-thin bench or Paul's lingering hamstring problem. And especially not after an antiquated postseason format rewarded their 56-win campaign with a brutal first-round prizefight against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs—a back-and-forth brawl like the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao battle was supposed to be.
But L.A. survived that series by riding Griffin's broad shoulders across the finish line. His seven-game performance was a museum-quality masterpiece: 24.1 points, 13.1 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals. Those can't even be called video game numbers, because virtual ballers don't even play that well.
Somehow, he's found a way to up the ante during the Clippers' first two games against the Houston Rockets.
With Paul watching from the sideline, Griffin willed his undermanned team to a series-opening double-digit victory with 26 points, 14 boards and 13 assists—his third triple-double in seven games. For an encore, he tallied 34 points and 15 rebounds in Game 2, nearly leading a team giving meaningful playoff minutes to Austin Rivers, Lester Hudson and Hedo Turkoglu to a 2-0 series lead.
The Rockets had the sixth-most efficient defense during the regular season. The CP3-less Clips have averaged 113 points per game against them, almost exclusively on the strength of Griffin.
"With Paul out, the Clippers' offense is to get Griffin the ball at the top of the key. That’s pretty much it. And it’s unguardable," wrote USA Today's Nate Scott.
These last two eruptions have pushed Griffin's postseason per-game marks to 25.4 points, 13.4 rebounds and 7.7 assists. As ESPN Los Angeles' Arash Markazi noted, those numbers put the 26-year-old into some incredibly exclusive historical company:
"He gets in the middle of the field and picks people apart, kind of like Tom Brady," Matt Barnes said, via Markazi. "He catches it at the free-throw line, sometimes the three-point line. If you don’t honor him, he will shoot the jumper or go by you. But if you’re on it, he will take that all the way, and he will find shooters."
It isn't hard to tell where the Clippers would be without Griffin. They would have started their fishing trip a while ago.
He's played all but 68 minutes of L.A.'s first nine playoff games. During that roughly game-and-a-half without him, the Clippers have been outscored by an astronomical 26.6 points per 100 possessions. For reference, the New York Knicks had this season's worst net efficiency rating at minus-10.1 points per 100 possessions.
Griffin is morphing into a point-producing wizard opponents don't even bother hoping to stop. Containment is the only goal at this point, and even that isn't happening. He has a top-six postseason average in points (sixth), rebounds (second) and assists (fifth).
"His goal coming into the league was to become a complete player," Griffin's business manager Lorne Clark told CBS Sports' Ken Berger. "He doesn't want to be typecast as a one-dimensional guy."
If the "all he does is dunk" crowd hasn't been completely silenced, its speaking privileges should be revoked.
He entered the NBA as a good passer (3.8 assists per game as a rookie in 2010-11), and he's developed into a great one (5.3 a night this year). He has constantly tested the limits of his offensive range and become a comfortable, capable scorer from just about anywhere on the floor.
| 2010-11 | 68.9 | 43.2 | 29.8 | 33.5 | 29.2 |
| 2011-12 | 76.5 | 42.6 | 25.0 | 38.2 | 12.5 |
| 2012-13 | 77.8 | 46.8 | 35.6 | 34.3 | 17.9 |
| 2013-14 | 74.3 | 40.2 | 39.8 | 37.2 | 27.3 |
| 2014-15 | 71.5 | 39.2 | 38.3 | 40.4 | 40.0 |
The loss of Paul has forced Griffin into a more prominent offensive role, allowing him to showcase the full array of his elite-level gifts.
This same scenario played out last season when Paul missed nearly a month with a separated shoulder. During the 18 games he sat out, Griffin exploded for 27.5 points on 55.4 percent shooting, 8.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists.
In other words, this playoff sample might be small, but it's not the only evidence that there's been a changing of the Clippers guard. Griffin isn't simply playing better, he's also growing as a leader. He made that apparent when he led his team to a road victory over a deeper, healthier, more rested Rockets squad to start the series.
"My main message throughout the entire game was just to stay together," Griffin said, via Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press. "There was no reason for us to crumble."
This shouldn't be construed as a suggestion that the Clippers are better off without Paul.
They're not. Teams don't improve by losing a top-10 player, which might actually be underselling Paul's talents.
However, this could be a chance for the Clippers to grow as a team. And that's an absolutely terrifying proposition, considering they wrapped the regular season with the league's best offense and its second-highest point differential (plus-6.6).
If L.A. can pair this Griffin—or something close to it—with a healthy Paul, this legitimate contender could find another level to reach.
Sort of like Griffin already has during his meteoric rise from highlight factory to transcendent talent. Anyone who still thinks of him as anything less either hasn't watched what he's doing or refuses to believe what their eyes are seeing.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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