'All I Hear Is How I Am Bad': Blake Griffin's 50-Point Outburst Sends a Message
DETROIT — There were so many examples Tuesday night of just how much Blake Griffin's life has changed. The highlight-reel dunks have been replaced with old-man post moves, the awkward 18-footers with silky treys, the bright lights of Los Angeles with, well, Detroit.
But also this: Blake Griffin's body, the vehicle once known for its ability to push the bounds of physical possibilities, now needs about an hour to recover from games.
He'd spent the evening bludgeoning the Sixers to the tune of a career-high 50 points and leading the Pistons to an electrifying 133-132 home overtime win. He'd capped off the performance, perhaps the best of his career—"You're seeing the culmination of years of labor at his craft," Sixers guard JJ Redick, a former Clippers teammate of Griffin's, would say later—with a bulldozing drive around Sixers big man Amir Johnson and through the swiping arms of Sixers wing Robert Covington. Covington had knocked Griffin to the floor and still, Griffin managed to float the ball high off the glass and through the net with 1.8 seconds left in overtime, tying the game. Griffin's ensuing free throw gave the Pistons the win, their third straight to begin this new season.
"Out of all the great players that I worked with, Dirk (Nowitzki), Kyle Lowry, Kevin Garnett, Shawn Kemp, all those guys, he's playing at that high a level right now," Pistons head coach Dwane Casey said afterward. "He's just one of those guys that is taking it to another level, leading his team, putting them on his back, being a leader in timeouts. But again, that is what we expect from Blake because he's that good a player."
Five years ago, Griffin might have been able to celebrate a performance like this by retreating immediately to the locker room. But now he's 29, coming off three straight injury-riddled seasons, not quite old but, in the confines of the NBA, closer to that mark than to being young. He's been in the league for nine years now. His knees, once the source of his power, have been cut open for surgery twice. His ankles sprained, his shoulders bruised.
And so, there was a stop at the trainer's room, splayed out on a table, uniform still hugging his 6'10" frame. After that, it was time to visit the cold tub, though not before taking a sip from one of the five bottles of alkaline water resting in his locker. Only then could he shower and get dressed. By then, all but one of his teammates had gone home.
"Look at that fake laugh," Pistons guard Ish Smith said to Griffin. The flat-screen TV hanging on the nearby locker room wall was airing the postgame interview that Griffin had conducted with the network about an hour earlier.
"That's my real laugh," Griffin said. "I use a fake one with you."
"The game was on NBA TV," Ish told him. "It was a national game."
"It was?" Griffin asked. He seemed pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, highlights flashed across the flatscreen TV hanging on the nearby locker room wall. There was Griffin, methodically backing down Sixers big man Dario Saric, plowing through him one play and spinning around him on another. There was a balletic, left-footed drop step. An old-man-like right-handed scoop. Everything was below the rim as if he'd conducted a Monstars-like swap with the lead-footed Zach Randolph. Lob City this was not.
"You know, the past two, three years, all I hear about is how bad I am, and I've been hurt, I've had bad games," Griffin told reporters a few minutes later. "But we talked about it. This summer, being able to work out for the first time in three summers is huge, you know. The last three summers I was fighting and working as hard as I could to get healthy to be able to play. And this summer, I was able to really put time in and work on my game, work on my body, and I've always been a big believer in hard work pays off."
Much of that work has been devoted to adapting his game to his new realities. The new pace-and-space style of the NBA, the aging knees that can no longer launch him over the hoods of parked cars. You could see it all on display Tuesday night. He'd swat a Sixers shot on one end and then fire a one-handed pass (he finished with six assists) to a streaking teammate for a layup on the other. He shot the ball like a wing, drilling five three-pointers (tied for the most he's ever made in a game), his release effortless and smooth. He handled the ball like a guard, taking over the Pistons' point guard duties midway through the third quarter, a counter to the Sixers' attempt to slow him with the bigger and stronger Joel Embiid.
The tweaks were evident to Redick, who spent four years playing alongside Griffin in Los Angeles. "Maybe, of every player I've been around in the NBA, I can't think of anyone who works harder than Blake, both on his body and his game," Redick said. "He's improved—and the guy was pretty damn good when he got into the league."
What this means going forward is hard to know. For one, can Griffin stay healthy? Also, is this 2.0 version here to stay? And if it is, is the presence of Griffin 2.0—a battering ram of a point-forward who can wreak havoc from every spot on the floor—enough to propel the otherwise meh Pistons up the Eastern Conference standings?
"After winning three games it's easy to say that, but talk to me in the middle of the season," Griffin said. "At this point in my career, yeah, I'm very comfortable but I also know that the season is such a roller coaster, that the quickest way to come out and get beat is to go out in the next game still thinking about this game."
Which is to say: Griffin's too seasoned to fall for that trap. But that's also precisely why it soon might be time to start asking these questions. Years of experience and falls have forced Griffin to fine-tune his game to the point where, right now, it appears to be devoid of any weakness. He may no longer be the magnetic high-flyer he once was. But because of that, he's now better than he ever was.
Yaron Weitzman covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow Yaron on Twitter @YaronWeitzman and sign up for his newsletter here.
