NBA: Blake Griffin Injury Could Be Worse Than Expected

The Detroit Pistons could be expecting “something worse” in Blake Griffin’s injury.

Prior to the start of the regular season, Griffin was already reportedly be out through the first week of November as he recovers from knee and hamstring injuries. However, new reports claim that the highflying big man could be experiencing even more serious injuries.

According to The Detroit News via “ Rod & Real” podcast, Pistons released a medical statement which says that Griffin will be out until early November. But aside from some knee and hamstring issues, who has limited Griffin in the preseason to only two games, sources claim that Griffin has also been limited in the recent team practices and it apparently looked like something else wasn’t right.

“But it felt like something else wasn’t right. He (Griffin) had been limited in practice this last week before the regular season also and that raised some red flags that maybe there was something else,” Rod Bear of The Detroit News revealed.

All told, Griffin is expected to miss conservatively 8-10 games and is likely to rest for a few days to get back up to speed.

Griffin spoke to the media last week at the practice facility to provide some update regarding injury. According to the Pistons star, he has been working with the team’s training staff and being patient about it given the fact that he will be battling through 82 games.

“Just working through it. I’ve been working with the training staff, doing what I can here. Also trying to realize it’s an 82-game schedule. I think sometimes we get a little over-hyped for that first game, so I got to be patient and listen to our training staff. We’ll figure it out,” Griffin stated.

Last season, Griffin was considered mostly healthy as he managed to play 75 games and lead the Pistons into the playoffs, He averaged 24.5 points per game and earned a Third-Team All- NBA nod. However, Griffin missed the first two games of Detroit's first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the first three games of this season, Griifin’s new off-the-bench co-star Derrick Rose has averaged 25.3 points points and 26.3 minutes per contest. After a hot start, many expect that Rose will be playing more minutes in the following games especially with Griffin out of the picture.

But Rose understands that monitoring his minutes could be essential in prolonging a healthy season.

“Not this soon,” Rose said about idea of playing 40 minutes.

“It plays a part in playing through fatigue. It’s still early. I’m in shape but to actually be in and doing all that I’m doing and having the same mindset to play while I’m fatigued, it takes some time to adjust to that,” Rose added.