Blake Griffin began his career with such enthusiasm. Then he discovered he plays for the Clippers.


15. L.A. CLIPPERS



Preseason Prediction: 42 wins (9th)
Revised Prediction: 19 wins



I couldn't attend the second Clips home game of the year (Sunday afternoon against Dallas); neither could my friend Tollin, who shares the tickets with me. We put the tickets on StubHub for about 90 percent of their value, hoping that a Mavs fan or Blake Griffin bandwagon-leaper might grab them. Within a few hours, Tollin e-mailed me, "Somebody bit! We sold the tickets!" First time we had gotten close to full value for Clippers tickets in three years. Two weeks, six losses and 359 sagged Griffin shoulders later, we were on the phone wondering what to do with last Friday's Pistons tickets and Tollin said, "Who knew the StubHub sale would be the highlight of our Clippers season?"



We both laughed. But it wasn't a joke.



The good news: Unlike other dreadful Clips seasons (and this will be one of them), at least they have a foundation for something: Griffin (a future franchise player), Eric Gordon (invigorated by his Team USA experience), Eric Bledsoe (a post-lottery steal) and Al-Farouq Aminu (Luol Deng 2.0) are four under-22 keepers.



The bad news: We didn't even get to Thanksgiving before the Clipper Skunk sprayed Blake. Within 10 days, he had that same glazed hostage-video look on his face that Clips fans have been seeing for 30 years.



I knew this could be bad, and I'd been warned by everybody, but still, I didn't know it would be THIS bad.



A few late-game collapses and deader-than-dead crowds will do that to you. In the preseason, when Blake was flying around like an insane cross between Young Shawn Kemp and Young Larry Johnson, he looked like one of those aspiring actresses who just moved to Hollywood dreaming of owning the city. Within a few weeks, he looked like that same actress after she had just fought off the advances of a few lecherous producers on casting sofas. Get me out of here. Monday's home game against New Jersey was frightening: Blake got eaten alive by Kris Humphries, nearly had his neck broken by Devin Harris (who was kicked out of the game for a flagrant foul), then jogged through the second half like he was thinking, "If I went back to Oklahoma, would I be able to regain my college eligibility?" I actually took the Sports Gal to that game (her first of the year); at one point, she blurted out "I thought you said Blake Griffin was good?" Like I had lied about Blake's talent to get her to come to the game. Bad sign for his rookie of the year campaign.



Reason No. 58 I need to bring my wife to more Clippers games: In the span of four quarters Monday, she complained about Brook Lopez's neck hair ("He obviously doesn't have a girlfriend, because she would have made him shave it"); bristled when I mentioned that the new Clippers sideline reporter follows me on Twitter ("Great, why don't you ask her out?"); decided that Blake Griffin as a baby looked exactly like he does now (solid point, actually); checked out on the Vinny Del Negro era after 10 minutes because she didn't like his tie or his hair (again, solid points); went into a two-minute tirade about how our daughter's musical had better choreography than the timeout routines from "Clipper Strippers" (her term for the Clippers cheerleaders); then got upset when the fans chanted for Brian Cook during the tail end of the game ("It's just mean, that's all I'm saying"). Does anyone know if @sh-tmywifesaysduringclippersgames is taken as a Twitter handle yet?