Blake Griffin snubbed his former teammates before and after the Clippers’ 108-95 win over the Pistons in Detroit on Saturday (AEDT), the L.A. Times reports.
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The loss was Detroit’s first since acquiring Griffin in a trade with the Clippers on Jan. 29. The Pistons had won their first four games with Griffin in the lineup and five straight overall.
Per the L.A. Times, Griffin “lowered his head and walked off the court” after the final buzzer, and neither spoke to nor shook the hands of any Clippers players, coaches or support staff before or after the game.
Griffin scored 19 points, making seven of 19 field-goal attempts and just one of seven from beyond the arc, and logged eights rebounds and six assists.
He and Clippers guard Avery Bradley – who was moved from Detroit to L.A. as part of the Griffin trade – were both assessed technical fouls after a skirmish and argument under the basket in the first quarter.
"At the end of the day, there's really just one guy there [from] when I first got there [in 2010]," Griffin said, referring to DeAndre Jordan.
"At the start of the season, we had nine new guys. Organisational, yeah, I was there for nine years. But those guys on the court are not quite the same when it's a lot of new guys. But, still, it's a team I'm familiar with. It was a little weird. It's the first time I've ever done something like that. So, it's out of the way. Move on."
Griffin played under Clippers coach Doc Rivers for four-and-a-half seasons.
Based on Griffin's pre-game comments, the snub wasn't a surprise.
"I’m not really the type of guy to be all buddy-buddy during the game. It’s gonna be a war,” he told reporters before tipoff.
Tobias Harris, who was also part of the package that Detroit sent to L.A. in exchange for Griffin, said of the Clippers’ win, "It's like seeing your ex-girlfriend for the first time with a new man and you got a new girl. Of course we want to win. That was the biggest thing. A lot was put into the trade, this game, so wanted to come out here and handle our business."