Struggling Blake Griffin had his best performance of the season Friday in Detroit. Maybe he just needed a feisty, blue collar night against his former team, the Pistons, to break his funk.
Make that a hardhat, steel-tip night.
“We love that Blake brings it and gives us that physicality. He’s also a very intelligent player, so he’s taking charges, fighting on the glass and understands our concepts defensively,” said head coach Steve Nash, whose Nets visit Toronto on Sunday. “He’s somebody that we’ve come to rely on and count on.”
Griffin had 13 points, five boards and one fiery bust-up with Isaiah Stewart with 2:57 to play. Oh, and he made two huge plays in the final minute: First, he stepped up to take his second charge of the night, then he made a tip-out that led to Kevin Durant’s game-clinching bucket with 13 seconds left.
“That tip-out and that charge really won the game for us,” Durant said.
The Nets celebrated Griffin on the bench with what has become a running gag between him and Joe Harris: Hard hats, steel tips. And after the final buzzer, a grinning Griffin ran down the tunnel mimicking putting on a hard hat and those imaginary work boots.
“That started with me and Joe last season. I don’t even know why. We both took a charge in a game … like some blue collar boys. So right before every game, we’d be like, ‘Hey it’s a steel toe, hard hat, lunch pail kind of game,’ and we’d do this stupid thing,” Griffin said. “Patty [Mills] came and took some charges and he submitted his membership. Joe and I have a meeting tomorrow to go over it. But we’re good.”
Griffin entered Friday averaging just 5.1 points on 27.3 percent from the field, and shooting 4-for-24 from 3-point range. With a back-to-back Sunday in Toronto and Monday in Chicago, the Nets are hoping Friday’s game bodes well for the struggling big man.
James Harden nearly had a dubious triple-double Friday, with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, but nine turnovers. One was particularly egregious, when Saddiq Bey poked the ball loose, but Harden didn’t chase it. That left Bey free to go the other way for an uncontested dunk.
“I think at that moment he was tired and made a mistake,” Nash said. “He owned up to it. He said he made a mistake.”
Harden led the league in both total turnovers (44) and turnovers per game (4.89) entering Saturday.
An ESPN report detailed racism and misogyny by Suns owner Robert Sarver. Nash spent years as the face of that franchise and said he was disheartened by the news, but added he hadn’t personally witnessed that side of his former boss.
“Yeah, I was saddened to read [that]. That hasn’t been my experience with Robert. But I’m obviously very sensitive to all those type of situations. It was disappointing,” Nash said.
Asked if he’d heard of the kind of racism and sexism from Sarver, he answered “No.”