LOS ANGELES -- As LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers considered his organization's woebegone history, he divided it neatly into two categories: pre- and post-Blake Griffin.
"Before Blake got here, this wasn't a great franchise," Rivers said Tuesday before his team faced the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. "Once Blake got here, and [Chris Paul] followed and [DeAndre Jordan] and all those guys, that's when this team was talked about."
But with Griffin abruptly traded Monday to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for three players and two draft picks, the Clippers prepared for their first game of the post-Blake era, absent a five-time All-Star whom they drafted first overall in 2009 and who immediately made their seemingly forever-forsaken team relevant.