Here’s what Jim Colton over at Wegobomber had to say about seeing Blake in person:
I went to the game with my golf buddy Matt, who surprisingly had no idea who Blake Griffin was before last week. Once upon a time, he was a big-time fan of the Bird-era Celtics, but literally hadn’t watched a basketball game since Michael Jordan retired (the second time). I could’ve told him that DeAndre Jordan was M.J.’s son and he would’ve believed me.
…
Once the game started, it didn’t take Matt long to realize that Griffin was on a completely different level than the other nine players on the court. “He looks like he’s the only one actually trying,” Matt remarked, which might’ve actually been true after Kevin Love made an early exit with foul trouble.
When he’s on the court, you simply can’t take your eyes off of Griffin. One thing I noticed is that he stalks the ball like a tiger. A lot of time he creeps slowly in the half-court, testing the cracks and waiting for the right time to strike. On the defensive end, the second the ball is turned over (which happened a lot with Minnesota), he sprints down the court looking for the oop. I bounced up-and-down in my seat on one particular two-on-one fast break that involved the following three parties: Baron Davis and Griffin on one side; Darko Milicic on the other. Sadly, Baron opted for a contested, double clutch lay-up instead of a Griffin over Darko poster that would’ve brought YouTube’s servers to a screeching halt.
Finally, at 8:40 PM Pacific Time, my cherry was popped. Griffin drove down the lane in traffic, threw-up a shot against the backboard, jumped back up and slammed it home. I’m pretty sure he missed the first one on purpose. On a scale from 1 to Mozgov, it was probably only a 5.5 on the Griff-o-meter, but it was exhilarating nonetheless. You know the scale is skewed when the only time I can recall anybody dunking their own putback was when Griffin did it earlier this season.
The Clippers played just bad enough in the third and beginning of the fourth quarter to keep the hapless T-Wolves somewhat in the game. The lead bounced around from 11-20 points for most of the second half. I openly rooted for the T-Wolves second unit in the fourth quarter, hoping that Vinny Del Negro would have to put the starters back in. [Just an observation, but I have a theory that there’s an inverse relationship between the quality of the coach and how far out on the court he stands in conference with his assistants when a timeout is called. I’m convinced the brain trust of Del Negro and Kurt Rambis lead the league in this category.] Thankfully with 6:41 left, Del Negro appeased the home crowd by putting Griffin, Davis and Jordan back in the game. A couple of minutes later, Griffin grabbed a rebound, went coast-to-coast, put his signature spin move on Corey Brewer and threw down the one-handed stuff. Twenty seconds later, he was out of the game and we were on our way for the exits. Overall, a fantastic one-night stand.