Clippers blow by Lakers in Griffin's return

Blake Griffin was the star of Friday night in NBA.

The last time Griffin played, it was against the Los Angeles Lakers. After missing 14 games, the Clippers leading man returned, and he was doing it all on the court, tossing lobs to DeAndre Jordan, rising up for poster dunks, and pacing the team in scoring.

By night’s end, Griffin finished with 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists in 32 minutes.

The Clippers already lost guard Patrick Beverly for the season to a knee injury. Forward Danilo Gallinari is out for the second time with a glute injury. They only recently got starting point guard Milos Teodosic is back from a plantar fascia injury. Like Griffin, all our starters.When Teodosic returned from injury, he was placed on a minutes restriction to slowly bring him back. There was no such restriction for Griffin.

"Now it looks like Austin," said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, Austin's dad. "We just keep rolling. It doesn't matter who is on the floor. We play like a team, we play hard, we defend hard. Our job is to figure it out each game until we get everybody back."

When asked about Griffin's return game.

"Oh, it was great," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of having his star back. "The first eight minutes of the game, you couldn't ask for better basketball. They came out and attacked. What I liked most was Blake a just kind of join in."

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Griffin hit only 6 of 15 field goal attempts, but connected on 11 of 12 free throws and added six rebounds and six assists. More importantly, he reported no issues with his knee.

"It felt good," he said. "I didn't have any second thoughts, any moments when I didn't trust it. That was important."

Clippers will host Charlotte on Sunday.