Blake Griffin paid more attention to the box-out than the box score.
After joining the Nets’ superteam in March, Griffin repeatedly expressed a willingness to sacrifice personal stats to chase the elusive championship. Well, Griffin’s words were put to the test in a five-game first-round playoff series when he never really found his footing in contributing 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game matched up against Celtics center Tristan Thompson.
“My focus was being physical and making sure I kept him off the glass,” Griffin said. “As long as I do the things that our coaching staff is asking me to do going into the game, then I’m happy. There’s always that thing of, I think I can play better. But winning a first-round series is most important. I’ve never won a first-round series four [games] to one, so you take what you can get.”
Can Griffin get more involved beginning Saturday against the Bucks? Or was this an indication of production to come?
“It was a tough series for Blake because they were switching everything [on screens],” coach Steve Nash said. “When they are switching, we’re going to isolate with our Big 3. That leaves him largely spacing the floor. They weren’t coming off him, so they in a sense took him out of the series.”
Griffin had never averaged fewer than 13.2 points or 5.5 rebounds in any of his previous 10 series. But those first 53 playoff games came as the primary or secondary threat for the Clippers and Pistons, not as a fill-the-gaps option around James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“I don’t say, ‘Blake had a poor series.’ I say, ‘That series wasn’t set up for Blake to fill the box score,’ ” Nash said. “It wasn’t a series that he could have as big an impact as we predicted or the indicators were going into the series.”
Thompson victimized Griffin — whose defensive rating against the Celtics was just eighth-best on the team — and backup Nic Claxton for 10.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. The center matchup is very different against the Bucks, who use 7-footer Brook Lopez as a 3-point-shooting stretch-5 on offense.
When the teams met twice in a three-day span in early May, the Nets started DeAndre Jordan at center with Griffin off the bench, but Jordan didn’t play at all against the Celtics.
“DeAndre would be setting screens and rolling a lot, be around the basket as a lob threat more,” Lopez said. “Blake can do those things. He is going to roll and crash the offensive glass, but he will pop on the perimeter and space much more. It’s definitely a different look, especially in terms of help defense and where I’ll be helping from.”
Because Harden, Durant and Irving played only one regular-season game together after Valentine’s Day, Griffin had ample opportunity to exceed expectations as an addition off the buyout market from the Pistons. His field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages all increased with the Nets, so he’s not simply out of gas.
“With Boston switching most pick-and-rolls, I thought our Big 3 took advantage of that,” Griffin said. “KD’s numbers, Kyrie’s numbers were insane. I don’t know that [any of] our supporting group’s numbers were crazy or would jump out at you.”
Nash’s confidence isn’t shaken.
“He’s been so great at accepting a role where he is complementary,” Nash said. “He uses his intelligence and experience to plug holes for us. We know and trust that he’ll do that again.”