Rowan Kavner 
Digital Content Coordinator
LOS ANGELES – J.J. Redick said the Clippers seem to thrive on alley-oop dunks and 3-pointers. With the latter not much of a component of the Clippers’ attack Sunday night, Blake Griffin provided plenty of the former.
Mason Plumlee had a front-row seat to Griffin’s acrobatic dunk show, three times the victim of Griffin’s ferocious slams that had the Clippers’ forward looking like the player everyone grew accustomed to seeing prior to injury and the one who posted two first-round triple-doubles last postseason.
Griffin’s heard plenty of talk about how long it might take him to get back to being himself. But while others worry about it, he prefers to take care of what he can control.
“I'm just going to go play and play as hard as I can and fill any void that we see as a team,” Griffin said. “I'm not really worried about the whole, ‘Can he get back,’ or, ‘Will he be able to play at a high level?’ It's just about filling those gaps for our team and finding ways to help.”
He helped with his dunking, providing a boost in energy and getting the bench riled up on his way to 19 points in Game 1. He helped with his playmaking, dishing out six assists, trailing only Chris Paul and C.J. McCollum in that category Sunday night.
He helped defensively as well against a Blazers team that had taken advantage on the offensive glass during the regular season, pulling down 12 rebounds to tie a game-high in the category along with DeAndre Jordan and Al-Farouq Aminu.
“I thought he was great,” Jordan said. “He scored the ball when he needed to score. He rebounded well, defended well, he got guys open looks. He's such a big key and a big part of our offense and our defense, so if he plays like that, we're a great team.”
It was more than just a strong performance for someone coming off injury, the way his final two games of the regular season were upon his return. This was a strong performance, period – the type of performance Jamal Crawford’s seen so often from Griffin throughout his career that has him believing the Clippers’ forward will eventually win an MVP award.
“He’s that good,” Crawford said.
The days after Sunday’s game will matter most for the Clippers in monitoring Griffin, though one of the surprising positives for head coach Doc Rivers throughout Griffin’s five-game return during the regular season was how well his forward felt after games.
As solid as Griffin’s looked in recent performances, this is still, after all, somewhat of a test period for Griffin and his quad, just a couple weeks after returning from an injury that kept him out more than three months.
“I still don't know the exact minutes that you play him,” Rivers said, “so that's something that we're trying to figure out.”
As they do so, Griffin’s performance isn’t suffering and continues gaining consistency. Every game, some aspect of Griffin’s attack seems to return to normalcy. On Sunday, for example, Rivers thought Griffin got his timing back for the first time.
And as long as each day continues to be a step forward for Griffin, 30-plus minute performances should still be the norm, much to the chagrin of Plumlee and the Blazers.
“I felt good,” Griffin said, before placing more emphasis. “I felt really good.”
