Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Blake Griffin says the Clippers don't have a home-court advantage


He was angry there were MVP chants for Stephen Curry during Tuesday's game.


The Los Angeles Clippers' odds of earning homecourt advantage for the first round of the playoffs took a blow Tuesday with a loss to the Golden State Warriors, but Blake Griffin doesn't seem to mind. After fans appeared to be cheering on both sides in a 110-106 loss to Golden State, Griffin questioned the Clippers' advantage at the Staples Center.


"Home-court advantage is just not there for us," Griffin told Arash Markazi of ESPN L.A. after the game. "If that's how it feels in the playoffs, it's not looking good."


The Clippers are one of several NBA teams that sells out almost every night, but not all those fans are on the same side. TV microphones caught an "MVP" chant for Warriors star Stephen Curry late in the game Tuesday night. This kind of stuff likely explains Griffin's ire:



Curry may be a beloved NBA star, but hearing MVP chants in another contender's arena was unusual. The Clippers have their own MVP candidate in point guard Chris Paul, so it's easy to see why Griffin would be frustrated those chants aren't for a teammate.


Griffin, who scored 40 points in the loss, wasn't the only Clipper to notice, either. The MVP chants for Curry caused "several Clippers players to look up into the stands and shake their heads," according to Markazi.


"I don't know what we could do, but it would be great if it wasn't that way," said Griffin. "It's kind of like when we play the Lakers. I don't know, maybe worse. It's one of those things where it would be great if it wasn't like that."


The Warriors have a growing contingent of fans with their style and success, but the same could also apply to the Clippers, who have undergone their own rebirth in recent years. Coach Doc Rivers took a less annoyed approach when asked about the crowd, saying, "I loved our crowd for the most part. I didn't like their crowd."


Los Angeles is currently fifth in the West with a 49-26 record. A bunch of teams are grouped up in the No. 2-6 seeds, however, so the Clippers may still end up getting homecourt advantage. They'd probably prefer that, even if some folks weren't on their side Tuesday night.






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