Blake Griffin had a chance to pull the struggling Clippers out of a funk late Wednesday night.
Instead, the forward’s would-be game-winning shot against Milwaukee bounced off the rim as the Clippers swallowed a dispiriting loss on their home floor.
Griffin will have to stew on his missed shot a little longer. The Clippers left Griffin and fellow big man DeAndre Jordan in Los Angeles after the game to rest, flying to Denver to play the second game of a back-to-back set without two of their three stars.
It is a break for the Nuggets, who will be thin in the front court themselves. (knee), (knee) and will all miss Thursday night’s game at the . , who has been out since Feb. 24 with a back injury, is expected to play.
This will be the fourth time in as many games against the Clippers that the Nuggets won’t see Griffin. The five-time all-star missed the previous three matchups as he recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery.
“It’s maybe a little more of a level playing field with all the guys who are out,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We haven’t played Griffin one time this year. And Chris (Paul) missed the last two games. So what does it change? Obviously DeAndre is tremendous rim protector and offensive rebounder. Blake Griffin is a guy who can score multiple ways. It means a lot more Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick.”
Redick scored 27 points in the Clippers’ 119-102 victory over the Nuggets on Dec. 20, and Malone said limiting his effectiveness with the other stars out for Los Angeles will be a key for Denver from the start.
“He’s one of the league leaders in first quarter points,” Malone said of Redick. “They go to him to start every game. The game we lost to them in L.A. he went off early and just destroyed us. Even with Blake not playing and DeAndre not playing, they’ve still got a lot of talent.”
