Blake Griffin puts a nice spin on Clippers’ first road win

The zero gave way to a 1 in the category of road wins, and was accomplished, in part, by another seismic adjustment in the area of Blake Griffin highlights.

“Mozgoved” has been supplanted by Griffin’s dazzling 360 spinning layup early in the fourth quarter against the Pistons on Friday night. Sadly, the Pistons are not yet playing in downtown Detroit. Otherwise, the highlight could be called the Motown Spin.

Griffin, the Clippers’ rookie power forward, had his 14th straight double-double, 24 points and 17 rebounds, to lead the Clippers to their first road victory of the season. They beat the Pistons, 109-88, at the Palace of Auburn Hills, ending an 11-game winless streak on the road this season, breaking it open with a big third quarter.

Four of the five Clippers starters scored in double figures. The Clippers outscored the Pistons, 29-16, in the third quarter and were able to withstand their usual rash of turnovers, 19 in all.

The Clippers (6-21) also lost their last four road games last season, and they had not won on the road since March 25 at Houston.

Veteran Griffin observers (which, frankly, sounds funny after 27 whole NBA games) and some of Griffin’s teammates thought the spinning move was even better than his now-famous dunk on the Knicks’ Timofey Mozgov last month. He had plenty of dunks Friday too.

“He’s bringing new things out. It is the Christmas holiday, so that might have been a gift for all of us,” said Clippers forward Ryan Gomes, who had 18 points, two shy of his season high.

Said Baron Davis, who had seven points and six assists off the bench: “That was stupid. That was ridiculous. That was ridiculous. I was whooping and hollering. I was going crazy. Like I did it.”

“That … that, I was about to swear,” said DeAndre Jordan, who had eight points and seven rebounds. “That was amazing. I thought he was about to dunk and I thought, ‘No, he’s too far.’ Then he started spinning, and I thought, ‘What is he doing?’ ”

The closest thing to Mozgov was the Pistons’ Tracy McGrady, who was more like a pylon than a victim on the play and was called for the foul. And instead of the Knicks’ Amare Stoudemire nodding in appreciation, there was a fan courtside who held out a hand for Griffin to smack after the play.

Of course, Griffin found the mark. His aim was (mostly) true most of the night. He did lament one thing.

“It would have been better if I had made that free throw,” he said in a self-deprecating, almost amused manner.

Everyone is a basketball critic, and Griffin heard it good from a Pistons fan behind the Clippers’ bench.

“Some lady was like, ‘Hey, Blake, this isn’t ballet!’ ” Griffin said, smiling. “I didn’t think it was a ballet move. I thought it was pretty manly.”

Said Jordan: “I was like, ‘Yeah, but it was nice.’ ”

Griffin was quick to point out after the Knicks game that the highlights didn’t mean anything without the win. Friday, he had both.

“It was an important win,” he said. “It’s almost like the first time that you do something like that. You know how to do that and know what it feels like. So you have something to build on.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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