Clippers’ Blake Griffin appears to be a target
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Clippers grudgingly accepted the NBA’s saying Thursday that Blake Griffin shouldn’t have been ejected from Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, but Los Angeles still is coming to grips with the perception that its All-Star forward has become a target.
Griffin was ejected by the officials after he was issued a technical foul along with Golden State’s Andrew Bogut after the two had become entangled with 10:43 left in the game.
It was Griffin’s second technical foul of the game, his first coming when the Clippers power forward and Golden State reserve Draymond Green were given double technical fouls at the end of the third quarter.
Green, who was fined $15,000 by the NBA for not leaving the court in a timely manner, was ejected after he hit Griffin with an elbow.
It’s that sort of thing that Green did that makes some think Griffin has been targeted by some of his opponents.
“Everyone is a target at some point in their career,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “And you just play through it. Blake is starting to let his game show, like, ‘You can keep bumping me and hitting me, I’m just going to keep dropping 20s [points] and 14s [rebounds] on you.’ And eventually it’ll go away. And that’s what he’s doing and it will.”
The NBA said a “common foul” should have been called on Griffin for trying to become dislodged from Bogut, whothe league said should have been assessed a technical foul “for grabbing Griffin by the shirt and wrestling with him.”
The Clippers still lost the game to the Warriors no matter what decision the league made a day later.
“No, we haven’t benefited from it,” Rivers said. “But I think it’s still nice that the league does it. I think it shows transparency. The old league wouldn’t say that. I think it’s good that they do that. I think it’s not a bad thing.”
Paul, Griffin in line for All-Star spots
When the NBA announced its second balloting results for the All-Star game, the Clippers still were well-represented.
Clippers guard Chris Paul and Griffin were ranked high among vote-getters for the Western Conference All-Star team.
Paul had the second-most votes (533,647) for West guards behind the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (723,031).
Griffin had the third-most votes (399,357) for West frontcourt players behind leader Kevin Durant (870,728) of Oklahoma City and Dwight Howard (408,623) of Houston.
Etc.
Clippers rookie Reggie Bullock said that he’s about 70% healthy after a sprained left ankle and that he has been running the last two days. Bullock said he’s about one to 11/2 weeks away from playing.
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