L.A. Clippers notes: Injured Griffin cheers teammates

Blake Griffin may need surgery to repair his injured toe, but the Clippers' star forward delayed his return to Los Angeles, where he will meet with doctors this week, in order to be with his teammates for Game 4 in Salt Lake City.

Dressed in a jacket, jeans and a protective walking boot on his right foot, Griffin sat behind the Clippers bench Sunday night.

"I think just his presence alone will be good for our team," center DeAndre Jordan said at shootaround earlier in the day.

The Clippers would have loved to have Griffin and his 21 points per game on the floor. The next best thing, they said, is to still have him on the bench.

"His energy is contagious," shooting guard Jamal Crawford said. "For him, he's such a student of the game. He sees so many different things. He can relate to the guards, he can relate to the bigs, he can relate to everybody because he can do pretty much anything on the court."

Griffin injured his toe in the first half of Friday's game at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Clippers were somber the following day when they learned they would be without the forward for the remainder of the postseason.

"Blake does everything right, to me," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "I really do believe in the basketball gods. And I think at some point, obviously, it won't be this year for him, there will be sunshine for him. Just right now, there isn't, and he has to work and get himself through that."

Griffin spoke at a team meeting Saturday in Salt Lake.

"We had a good meeting with Blake in there," Rivers said. "I thought that was important. Guys got a lot out to tell him. He had some things to say."

Griffin's message to his teammates?

"For us to continue our journey, man," Jordan said. "He obviously feels bad that he's out, but it's not his fault. We told him that. He wants us to continue to play, man, as if he was on the floor."

Mo minutes

Rivers elected to start Mo Speights at power forward with Griffin out.

"I prepare every game the same way," Speights said. "Even if it's 15 to 20 minutes, I'm going to prepare the same, coming in with the right mindset and the right focus."

With most teams around the league playing only one big at a time, Rivers hasn't paired Speights with Jordan often this season.

"But we do like it together because it allows D.J. to just roll and Mo to do what he really wants to do, and that's to stand out there and shoot 3s," Rivers said. "So he's thrilled with the rotation, I can tell you that."

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