Blake Griffin kind of flew under the radar heading into the 2016-17 season, partly because he missed so much time during the previous year due to a suspension. Some people may have forgotten that when he’s on, Griffin is a devastating mix of power and athleticism who can do things like this.
Maurice Harkless went up for a kind of awkward layup during Portland’s game against Los Angeles. He knew Griffin was flying in to try and block his shot, so Harkless knew he had to try and put the ball as high off the glass as possible in an attempt to get it over Griffin.
This did not work. Harkless kind of lobbed the ball up like he was setting a volleyball, and Griffin came in to spike it into the stands. We see dudes send basketballs into the crowd all the time, but this traveled at least 30 feet into the arms of someone sitting four or five rows back.
Griffin put in some work with Kevin Garnett this offseason, who was also capable of turning blocks into huge highlights. This play shows off some of the work that Griffin got in, and if he’s doing stuff like this during the Clippers’ first game of the year, just imagine what he’ll do later this season.
