The timetable on Blake Griffin’s return has been up in the air thus far. Griffin started doing some shooting a few weeks ago as he is recovering from his initial quad injury, suffered right before Christmas, and the broken hand which he suffered in an altercation with a Clippers equipment manager in January.
Sometime this month has been the popular projection for Griffin to return to the Clippers lineup, but it’s going to be another couple of weeks before the five-time All-Star forward is back out there.
Following from Dan Woike of the Orange County Register:
The hand injury isn’t serious enough to keep Griffin from practicing. But his injured quad hasn’t responded to an increase in workout intensity.
Griffin’s timetable to return has been pushed slightly back to late March.
While Griffin hasn’t suffered a specific setback, he hasn’t progressed in a way that matched Doc Rivers’ optimism earlier this month.
Rivers admits that Griffin is close to being ready.
“He’s looking good. He really is,” Rivers said that night. “Honestly, I was watching him today and I was like … in my mind thinking ‘We could use some of that tonight.’”
Remember, Griffin still has to serve a four-game suspension for the altercation once he’s medically cleared. That in itself adds to what’s already a delayed return since he’s recovering from two injuries, but as reported, the quad injury is keeping Griffin out more so than the hand injury.
For rhythm and chemistry purposes, the Clippers need Griffin on the floor for as much as possible before the playoffs begin. It would have been nice to have Griffin back this coming week as the Clippers have the Cavaliers and Spurs coming up, but clearly nothing is being rushed. They face the Thunder for the last time in the regular season on March 31 and only have seven games in April before the regular season concludes.
