Blake Griffin’s impression of Austin Rivers’ game is worth watching
We knew that Blake Griffin liked performing comedy. We didn’t know, though, the Los Angeles Clippers’ All-Star power forward fancied himself an impressionist:
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Wow. That is uncanny. That really is pretty much exactly what Austin Rivers looks like on the lion’s share of the possessions where he isolates on the perimeter and drives to the cup.
It’s not exactly what we were anticipating from a former No. 1 high-school recruit who led Duke in scoring during his lone season in Durham, but that sort of dribble-drive, complete with wildly off-target floater, has kind of been Austin’s signature move since entering the NBA in 2012. From his rookie struggles with the New Orleans Hornets through two more largely unimpressive pro seasons, the closest I’ve been come to drawing a bead on Rivers’ “lots of activity to go nowhere” game is to say that he sort of looks like if Stephen Curry or Kyrie Irving couldn’t actually do anything. I guess I’m not alone.
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That said, it does seem kind of mean for Blake to air out Austin in front of his still-pretty-new Clippers teammates in front of the all-seeing eye of Matt Barnes’ smartphone camera, especially after Rivers had one of his better games of the season, scoring 21 points on 9-for-10 shooting in 19 1/2 minutes, in the Clippers’ destruction of the New York Knicks on Wednesday. Then again, maybe grinning, bearing it and showing the established bros that it doesn’t bug you is just part of the process of getting past the “coach’s son” weirdness and becoming part of the gang.
I guess we’ll know for sure whether Austin’s cracked the locker-room-culture code if we see him come right back with a Blake impression of his own. My suggestion: Pretend you’re jockeying for a rebound, wind up on your back and start chokeslammedgrimacing and choking. All in the game, and it’ll probably go viral. Think about it, Austin.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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