Blake Griffin Can Carry LA Clippers to Win over Houston Rockets

When Chris Paul went down, many assumed the Clippers' chances of advancing past Houston went with him. In years past, that might have been true—but not now, not with an evolved Blake Griffin leading the way. 

Say his name to casual NBA fans—or anyone who's ever seen a Kia commercial—and they'll conjure up a similar image in their minds: a chiseled, 6'10", freckled forward floating too high in the air, ready to unleash some form of violent, rim-bending dunk, like the one in the video below. 

But if these NBA playoffs have shown the world anything, it's that Griffin is more than a Jackson Pollock splash canvas of random dunk highlights. He's more of a Picasso or Monet or even a maestro in the way he conducts himself on the court. 

And finally, people have begun to take notice:

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"Blake Griffin can only dunk" seems like forever ago that was true

— NBA Genius (@TheNBAsGenius) May 7, 2015"

Griffin is the reason the Clippers will advance past the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals, whether Chris Paul gets back to 100 percent or not. 

Griffin's true worth as an NBA player has never been more apparent than in these playoffs, especially in the Clippers' current second-round battle against the Houston Rockets, in which Paul, resident point god and perennial All-NBA guard, has yet to play because of a hamstring injury.

During the postseason, Griffin ranks second in win shares (1.5), second in player efficiency rating (25.8), second in rebounds per game (13.6), fifth in assists per game (7.7), sixth in points per game (25.4) and eighth in minutes per game (41.0), per Basketball-Reference.

And as ESPN Stats & Info points out, he's doing things that haven't been seen in decades:

No one gave the Clippers any sort of chance in Game 1 on the road in Houston. Paul's replacement was Austin Rivers—the coach's son, who is, to say the least, a precipitous drop-off from CP3.

But that's why they play the games.

Griffin transformed his being into an unholy basketball deity that seemed to meld together the best aspects of Magic Johnson, Shawn Kemp and Karl Malone.

Griffin totaled 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists against Houston in Game 1, a 117-101 L.A. victory. It was the Kia King's second straight triple-double, which put him in some rare company, per ESPN Stats & Info:

But Clippers forward Matt Barnes chose to compare his running mate to a transcendent athlete from another sport altogether.

"He's incredible," Barnes told The Associated Press following the game, per Sports Illustrated. "He gets in the middle of the field and kind of just picks people apart like Tom Brady," Barnes said. "That's like a grown man triple-double right there."

The scoring was nice, but his game-high plus-21 plus/minus stemmed from his playmaking abilities. Griffin was dishing and dribbling like he was a robot being controlled by Chris Paul.

The video below shows the full arsenal of offensive weaponry Griffin had on display in Game 1.

Kevin McHale never made the proper adjustments, so Griffin just made the court his own personal playground with dishes such as this one to his favorite lob partner, DeAndre Jordan:

Griffin was responsible for 44.8 percent of all Clippers assists while on the court, and his 27.5 percent usage percentage was second only to actual guard and noted chucker Jamal Crawford, per NBA.com.

Houston allowed Blake to bend the game to his will, to bring the ball up, attack and leave the Rockets scrambling for a solution. McHale needed a new plan in Game 2.

Early on, it was just just more of the same: utter Griffin dominance, as the first-half shot chart shows.

Griffin had 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting in the first half. He was Godzilla in the paint, with the Rockets' hoop playing the role of whichever poor city stood in the monster's way that day.

But in the second half, McHale realized something: He can use double-teams in order to let the rest of the Clippers beat him.

McHale sicced the bigger, stronger Dwight Howard on Griffin, taking away the post-ups the Clippers superstar had relied on in the first two games.

Previously unstoppable, the Magic Johnson impersonation came to an abrupt halt: Griffin scored just eight points on 2-of-9 shooting in the second half and finished the game with only four assists, his lowest postseason total.

His second-half shot chart, provided by NBA.com, showcased a complete reversal of his first-half prosperity.

Doc Rivers acknowledged the issues such a strategy brought in speaking with Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney:

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We got out of rhythm offensively. That’s where the game changed for us. I thought this was the first game we didn’t trust each other with the pass. We did two things: The ball didn’t move and we got stuck trying to get the ball to Blake so much that we forgot that there were other guys on the floor and the ball never changed sides of the floor. That hurt us.

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The Clippers never picked Griffin up, who, in the second half, looked worn down by the burden he has been tasked with carrying these first two games.

The second-half shot chart shows how Griffin floated away from the rim and became less of an attacker. The strategy worked, and Houston won 115-109, evening the series at one game apiece. 

But just because McHale's adjustments worked doesn't mean Rivers, Griffin and the rest of the team won't make any of their own. Griffin has flashed a deadly mid-range jumper all postseason, and one game of poor shooting doesn't change the fact that he'll now hit those shots more often than not.

Even with Griffin faltering and the rest of the Clippers failing, L.A. lost by just six in a hostile road environment. 

Griffin was enough to win Game 1 all by himself. He nearly did the same in Game 2. And if anything, in a time as trying as this, the 26-year-old All-Star can reflect on an important summer conversation he had with future Hall of Fame forward Tim Duncan, as reported by CBS Sports' Ken Berger:

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Produce, Duncan told him. Lead by example. Make people respect your actions. Have personal relationships with each of your teammates so you can have one-on-one conversations with them when they need you.

Griffin listened, and took notes. Then, during the idyllic summer months in LA, it was time to execute the plan.

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Chris Paul might be out for one more game, but Game 3 in L.A. will take place in a far more hospitable environment, with an entire arena pulling for Blake as it once did for Magic and Kareem and Kobe and Shaq. 

For Blake Griffin, the plan finally appears to be coming to fruition. Healthy CP3 or not, the Clippers will emerge from this series victorious, carried upon the broad back of No. 32.