LOS ANGELES >> A lopsided win over the Denver Nuggets started the whispers of what will inevitably turn into a roar if the Clippers can beat the Spurs on Thursday.
“Is this team actually better without Blake Griffin?”
It’s a ridiculous question in some ways — Griffin’s one of the best players in the NBA at his position — but the Clippers have always seemed to use his absences as an opportunity to surge.
A year ago, the team went 30-15 while Griffin recovered from a torn quad and a broken hand. The year before that, the Clippers went 9-6 through a rough stretch of schedule while he dealt with a staph infection in his right elbow.