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Blake Griffin's got dimes, y'all

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer

The bad news: the Los Angeles Clippers are still without Chris Paul, and will be for another four to six weeks as he rehabilitates after surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb. The good news: Blake Griffin is back from his post-surgery rehab, and not only starting to look like the fire of old, but evidently feeling good enough to start throwing around truly beautiful nonsense:

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We stand by our previous analysis that there is no way to satisfactorily replace everything that CP3 brings to the Clippers. THAT SAID: having your 6-foot-10-inch, 250-pound power forward treat operating from the elbow extended against the Phoenix Suns like he’s holding court at the Rucker, and in so doing successfully setting up J.J. Redick for a sweet reverse lay-in, is not a bad start.

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Griffin turned in his best effort since his return, leading L.A. with 29 points on 10-for-14 shooting to go with eight rebounds, five dimes, a steal and a block in 34 minutes of work to lead the Clippers to a 124-114 road win. The Clips lost All-Star center DeAndre Jordan with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter after he was ejected following a flagrant foul-2 on Phoenix rookie Marquese Chriss, and rampaging Suns guard Eric Bledsoe torched the L.A. defense for 41 points on 13-for-22 shooting with eight assists and four boards in 40 minutes, but the Clips still held on for a bounce-back win after their brutal Saturday night destruction at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.

The win snaps a two-game losing skid, as the Clippers improve to 31-18, a half-game up on the Utah Jazz in the race for the No. 4 spot in the West. The lesson that we should take from this: Blake Griffin needs to make more And-1 Mixtape Tour-style passes if the Clippers want to secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. That’s just science, right there.

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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!