Rowan Kavner 
Digital Content Coordinator
LOS ANGELES – Blake Griffin will miss the remainder of the postseason after aggravating the left quad injury that kept him out for half of the regular season.
Griffin, who missed 41 games this year with a partially torn left quad tendon, felt a tweak in the same quad while getting fouled in the third quarter Monday night by Mason Plumlee.
He went to the locker room with the sore quad before trying to return to the court, but that effort didn’t last long, as he watched the end of the game back on the bench. Griffin said he hoped the next 24 or 48 hours would have him turning a corner. That, however, won’t be the case.
An MRI on Tuesday morning revealed no further structural damage, and Griffin will be ready for the start of training camp next season, but his 2015-16 playoffs are done.
Griffin first injured his left quad Dec. 25 against the Lakers and didn’t play again until the start of April. The Clippers tried to manage his minutes in his return, since the tear was still present when he came back.
“It’s just about managing the pain and getting through this,” Griffin said before making his return April 3.
Griffin played in five of the Clippers’ final seven regular season games, getting rest along with the majority of the starters in two late road games. He knew the injury would test his patience, but the Clippers and head coach Doc Rivers were surprised with how strong Griffin felt after each game, up until Monday.
He showed more explosion as games went by during the regular season, including a 17-point, 11-rebound, seven-assist game against the Mavericks. He was a handful for Mason Plumlee to start the first-round series, throwing down dunk after dunk on his way to 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in Game 1.
That was Griffin’s best performance of the series, which is now tied 2-2, though he scored in double digits in all four games. After Game 4, Rivers said it didn’t look good for Chris Paul. He had a similar answer for Griffin.
“It doesn’t look great for him, either,” Rivers said.