9:30am: The Clippers have announced that Griffin will miss the remainder of the postseason with an injury to the plantar plate of his right big toe. Marc J. Spears of ESPN relayed the press release over Twitter.
8:24am: The Clippers avoided a worst case scenario when it was revealed that Blake Griffin‘s toe was bruised and not broken but battling through to a championship without their forward at full strength is unrealistic, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times writes.
A silver lining for the franchise is that it was quickly discovered through initial X-rays that the 28-year-old’s right big toe was bruised and not broken. Clippers courtside reporter Kristina Pink tweeted as much during the game.
Per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, Griffin was scheduled to undergo an MRI following the game on Friday night.
Both head coach Doc Rivers and point guard Chris Paul understand the impact that the toe issue could have on their postseason fates.
“We won’t be able to play through the post so much,” Paul said. “Blake is such a dynamic player. We go to him in the post, and we cut and move off of him. He’s our other assist guy. There’s just a different feeling when he’s on the court.”
The news conjures images of last year’s first-round series against the Trail Blazers when both Griffin and Paul went down with injuries.
Expect the Clippers to build upon the 2-1 lead they eked out with Griffin sidelined, Hernandez writes, but unless some good news comes through the pipeline soon, that may be all they get.
According to Turner, Rivers expects that news to come Saturday with Griffin’s Game 4 status still questionable in the meantime.
injuries suck man. sad to see blake play his last game as a clipper… end of an era
fax
He and Paul get hurt all the time;especially, in the playoffs.
The man is talented but needs to work on his inside game and stop shooting jumpers . Good player but always injured , they should have traded him this year . Clippers are done now
What a waste of talent bruh, who is seriously investing in this soft dude? I sure wouldnt, hes trash
hes a tease….put some glue on it and play….dudes are softer than wet toilet tissue…thought he was a country boy…
His toe?? Come on, you’ve got 9 other ones. Just suck it up and play.
Tough blow and quite possibly his last game as a Clipper.
Just cut it off it will be fine