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Blake Griffin is 'most likely' ready to return to the Clippers, and not a moment too soon

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
Blake Griffin is overcome with emotion at the prospect of his return. (AP)
Blake Griffin is overcome with emotion at the prospect of his return. (AP)

The Los Angeles Clippers bounced back on Monday, earning a 115-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks to end a two-game losing skid that began after they lost All-Star point guard Chris Paul for six to eight weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb. The good news continued for Doc Rivers’ club after the game, as relayed by Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com:

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Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers says power forward Blake Griffin will “most likely” return to action Tuesday when the team faces the 76ers in Philadelphia.

Griffin, who had an arthroscopic procedure Dec. 20 to remove loose bodies from his right knee, missed his 18th consecutive game Monday […] The Clippers have compiled a 10-8 record while he has been sidelined.

Griffin, who has been traveling with the team on this road trip and got in some work Monday, made his first public comments since the surgery on Saturday in Denver, saying, “I’m as close as you can feel.”

He had participated Friday in his first full-contact workout since the operation, matching up with teammates Brice Johnson and Alan Anderson prior to the team’s flight to Denver.

“It was good to get some real work in besides just running and shooting,” Griffin said Saturday. “Now it’s kind of up to them.”

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With the ball in their court, the Clippers on Tuesday moved the power forward closer to his return:

… which is bad news for the recently surging 76ers, who will be without ascendant star Joel Embiid for the next two games as he tends to a knee contusion, and very, very good news for the Clippers. (Duh.)

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To their credit, with the exception of Saturday’s blowout at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, the Clips have been more competitive than expected without either Paul or Griffin in the lineup. Austin Rivers stepped up his scoring, Raymond Felton did a steady enough job setting the table and DeAndre Jordan took on more importance on both ends of the floor, as L.A. fell three points shy of toppling the Minnesota Timberwolves and hung on to knock off Atlanta at Philips Arena. With or without Griffin, there’s a solid chance Doc and company would’ve notched a win in Philly on Tuesday, giving them a perfectly respectable .500 start to live without their top two playmakers and scorers.

As I noted when news of Paul’s injury broke, though, the Clippers’ schedule is about to get brutal. They’ve got two games in the next nine days against the NBA-leading Golden State Warriors, followed by a five-game road trip featuring meetings with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz.

Without Paul and Griffin, the Clippers’ chances of treading water against such a difficult slate seemed awfully slim, increasing the likelihood that they’d not only cede home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs, but even drop down toward the lower reaches of the bracket and face the daunting prospect of having to win three series on the road to realize their long-deferred dream of reaching the NBA Finals. It won’t be easy with Griffin, but if he’s truly as “explosive” and ready to go as Doc claims, and capable of approximating the monster production he managed while Paul nursed a shoulder sprain in 2014 — 27.5 points on 55.4 percent shooting to go with 8.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.4 steals in 35.6 minutes per game over an 18-game stretch, during which L.A. went 12-6 — it just might be doable.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!