Blake Griffin Won’t Travel With Clippers To Portland

Blake Griffin Won’t Travel With Clippers To Portland

Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin along with guard J.J. Redick will not join the team for the final game of the regular season this Wednesday in Portland against the Trail Blazers. Clippers coach Doc Rivers was apparently already planning to not use Redick against the Blazers, however, Griffin’s absence is due to a referee’s decision and not strategy.

Griffin got his 16th technical foul in Tuesday’s game against the Denver Nuggets meaning that he had a mandated one game suspensions coming his way. Coach Rivers said that while Griffin contested the referee’s decision, he still won’t bring him to Portland.

Rivers argued that even if a league committee will rescind the technical foul, he wants Griffin to take this Wednesday off and rest. The Clippers coach also said that Chris Paul will travel with the team but he can’t say how much he can rely on the player. He added that while he is not yet sure about the starting line-up the Clippers will be ready come game time.

Griffin got his 16th technical of the season while attempting to block Timofev Mazgov in the second quarter of the Nuggets game. The player argues that his intention was clear and he first hit the ball before touching Mazgov. Even with coach Rivers declaring he won’t take Griffin to Portland, the player still wants the decision to be rescinded.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Thursday April 17 2014, 2:59 AM EST. Ref: espn. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0