DETROIT – The “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants tend to break out randomly and with varying degrees of merit across the NBA these days. But the first such chant for Blake Griffin, growing to a groundswell at Little Caesars Arena with 3:09 left in regulation and the Pistons trailing by a point as Griffin stepped to the foul line, wasn’t so easily dismissed.
Griffin’s two free throws to put the Pistons in front gave him 41 points, his ninth career 40-point game and his first since being traded to Detroit last winter.
By the time his three-point play with 1.8 seconds left in overtime to give Griffin his first career 50-point game was in the books, that MVP candidacy seemed as real as it could possibly get only three games into an 82-game season.
“You appreciate the love from the crowd, but we’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of games left to be played,” Griffin said after dazzling the home crowd in the 133-132 overtime win that keeps the Pistons unbeaten at 3-0. “The crowd was unbelievable tonight. They were huge for us down the stretch. Man, if they can be like that every night we’ll have a home-court advantage for sure.”
The Pistons know they can’t lean on Griffin to score 50 every night, but it��s clear that this version of Blake Griffin – healthy and coming off of a full off-season for the first time in four summers – can lead the franchise to places they haven’t been in a decade or more.
And as he put them on his shoulders, Griffin noticed something in the demeanor of his teammates.
“It starts with believing,” he said. “Like today, we believed this whole game. I never saw a moment where we were like, all right, we tried. A lot of times last year, guys were kind of like defeated. Everybody stayed positive and that’s huge.”
Griffin’s 50-point game ranks No. 7 on the franchise’s all-time scoring list and was the first since Rip Hamilton scored 51 at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 27, 2006. He hit 20 of 35 shots, tying a career best by making five 3-pointers in 10 tries. For good measure, he added 14 rebounds, six assists and a blocked shot and committed just one turnover in 44 minutes despite spending most of the second half as the ballhandler operating in pick-and-roll situations.
“He is an old-school point forward,” Dwane Casey said. “You can run end-of-game situations for him or put him in pick and rolls. You can post him up. If you put a big on him, you can take him out on the floor. A very versatile player.”
He became the first Pistons player to record three straight games of 25 or more points, eight or more rebounds and five or more assists to open a season.
Through three games, Griffin’s per-game averages are 36.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists on 53 percent shooting and 61 percent 3-point shooting. Astonishingly, given the amount of time Casey puts the ball in his hands, Griffin has two turnovers in 113 minutes.
His decision making has been virtually flawless, as it was on the game-winning play. After J.J. Redick’s four-point play with 5.6 seconds left gave Philadelphia a 130-128 lead, Casey called timeout and dialed up a play to put the ball in Griffin’s hands – surprise, surprise.
“It was coach Casey’s call,” Griffin said. “A possible handoff or a keep. He drew up a great play. Reggie (Bullock) came off with speed. Everybody was in the right spots.”
Amir Johnson was guarding Griffin – after Dario Saric, Joel Embiid, Robert Covington and Mike Muscala all took a spin. The 3-point shot was there momentarily and it appeared to be Griffin’s first instinct. But when Griffin faked the handoff to Bullock, Embiid took himself out of the play and Johnson overcommitted to Griffin’s left, giving him a clear path to the rim.
“I was kind of seeing what Amir Johnson was doing. He was on the ball and I saw him go and I just figured I’d try to beat Embiid. He went with Reggie and then it was just me and Covington, so, you know – the finish.”
Griffin drove to the rim from the right side and scored over Covington as he fouled Griffin. Griffin opened the night missing his first six free throws, four of them in a 22-point second quarter.
“I had to make that free throw after missing the first six,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever done that.”
No Pistons player has ever scored more in a season’s first three games than Griffin’s 109. Only George Yardley – who spent far more time with the Fort Wayne Pistons than the Detroit Pistons – has ever had a double-double while scoring 50 points among all Pistons players.
For every attempt made after the game to draw Griffin out about the magnitude of the win and his performance, he kept dialing the hyperbole back a few notches.
“It’s a big win, but we’ve got to move on,” he finally said. “This is Game 3 and now we’re on to Game 4 as soon as we get done with film tomorrow. It feels good to get this win and to play well, but … Game 4.”
It’s the perspective of a 10-year veteran who’s played deep into May before and knows that MVPs aren’t won – nor champions crowned – in October. It’s the perspective of a player who knows what it takes to get to Game 83 – and beyond. Pistons fans once accustomed to long and satisfying playoff rides can get behind that sentiment.