Blake Griffin lost his NBA debut when Los Angeles Clippers sidelined him owing to his kneecap injury. The Oklahoma star player was picked up by Clippers as their No. 1 overall draft pick. In the regular season, the Clippers are to play 20 games in their first 6 weeks with their opening game on Tuesday 27th October, 2009.
Before the preseason began, Griffin had suffered from a strained shoulder in July during the summer league game. However, Griffin had well recovered as the preseason began and had averaged the preseason games with 13.7 points with 8.1 on rebounds. Griffin suffered a knee injury while playing in the finals of exhibition game for Clippers on 23rd October, 2009. The power forward exhibited pain in his kneecap after a dunk. The team officials did not know the extent of his injury at the beginning but the after-match examination showed a broken knee.
Griffin has been a consistent player during his college years giving out averages of 22.7 points and has also won NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) - best rebounds per game with 14.4 rebounds. This latest set-back has hit the Clippers hard as they were expecting Griffin to start play on Wednesday.
The Clippers was missing center Chris Kaman and point guard Baron Davis in action at the start of the season, but both the players have now been declared fit to play and will join the rest of the squad. Griffin was amongst the combined attack team of Rasual Butler, Marcus Camby and Al Thorton.