Forward thinking is unavoidable now
Clippers can’t help feeling badly for Griffin but can’t feel sorry for themselves.
SALT LAKE CITY — The mood was somber and the tone in their voices indicated mostly disbelief as the Clippers were forced to come to grips with not having Blake Griffin for yet another playoff run after he was ruled out Saturday for the rest of the postseason because of an injury to the plantar plate of his right big toe.
Griffin will be reevaluated after the team returns to Los Angeles following Game 4 of its first-round playoff series against Utah here Sunday night. He will see a foot and ankle specialist.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers, asked whether Griffin would require surgery at some point, told reporters at the team’s hotel, “Yeah, for sure.”
Griffin was injured late in the second quarter of Game 3 Friday night against the Jazz, a game the Clippers eventually won to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.
Now the Clippers must move forward, move past their emotions and get ready for Game 4 at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
Still, Chris Paul said they all felt Griffin’s pain after talking to their teammate. He said Griffin was feeling “not great.”
“Going through as much as me and big fella have been together, it’s always tough,” Paul said. “Somebody like that, you just hate for dumb stuff like this to happen when you know how hard somebody works. The fans, everybody, they don’t get an opportunity to see that. For somebody who is dedicated to the process, the training and the working out, and all that stuff like that, for something to happen, you hate to see it.”
Griffin apparently was injured after he got a defensive rebound and got tangled up with Utah’s Boris Diaw. He showed some pain in his toe but tried to play through it.
A few moments later, Griffin raced downcourt and scored on a layup over Rodney Hood. But when he came down after he scored, he limped back up court.
The Clippers called time out with 3 minutes 18 seconds left in the second quarter as Griffin slowly walked to the bench.
He then bent over and punched a seat cushion with his right hand before heading to the locker room.
“It’s awful. It’s awful for him,” Rivers said. “Especially when you know the guy and you see all the work that he puts into being healthy and a good player. And where he was at, too. Like, he was in a great place. He was playing terrific basketball. It’s just a tough blow for him.
“You feel bad for him. I felt so bad for him last night, you know. He knew right away. I didn’t, obviously. But then after the game, I got the news and then, you know, we talked to Blake last night. Can’t imagine how heartbroken he is over this. So you just feel bad for him.”
“Feel really bad, man, because he’s worked hard every day and to have a freak accident like this is really sad,” center Marreese Speights said. “But I know he’s strong enough to come back from it.”
This is the second straight year Griffin has been unable to complete a playoff series. During a 2016 first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, he partially tore his left quadriceps tendon in Game 4 and did not return.
And he missed 18 games during the 2016-17 regular season recovering from right knee surgery.
Griffin wasn’t available to talk to the media Friday night or Saturday.
But in an interview with The Times about two weeks ago, Griffin explained how he has mentally dealt with his myriad of injuries over his seven-year career.
“I’ve had my fair share of injuries,” he said then. “You’re disappointed and you’re sad that you can’t play. But self-pity does absolutely nothing.”
In many ways, Paul feels the same way about this team, saying that the Clippers’ goal of winning this series against the Jazz hasn’t changed because Griffin is sidelined.
“It don’t change that. Naw,” Paul said. “Listen, this is not good. It’s not the best thing that could have ever happened to us. But it’s not the end of the world. We still are going to go out there. We know we got a job to do. We got a big game tomorrow, Game 4, and we go out there expecting to win.”