Live from the Rose Garden as the Portland Trail Blazers host the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers come in having won six of their last seven contests, mostly due to Blake "Ginger Dynamite" Griffin. In the time it took me to write that last sentence, Griffin dunked on four people—his own teammate, two kids, and what appeared to be an old woman—and the game hasn't even started yet.
Despite their losing record, the Clippers have pushed themselves towards near-relevancy, and it mostly can be attributed to Griffin's meteoric rise. Only a rookie, he's averaging over 22 points and 13 rebounds a game, and has turned himself into a one-man highlight reel of awesome. Griffin has also inspired his team to at least try to win basketball games—more specifically, chubby Baron Davis appears to actually care about the sport of basketball more than food and beard grooming techniques, which is no small feat.
With Marcus Camby expected to miss around three weeks after undergoing successful knee surgery today, Joel Przybilla (and perhaps Sean Marks) will attempt to replace his presence in the middle. No surprise here, but don't be alarmed if both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan wreak havoc on Portland's slow (read: white) centers.