Griffin gives team a jump

The dunks ... yes, we get that.

But Blake Griffin’s early run of jump shots, ranging from a 15-footer and extending to a 21-footer, against the Hornets was impressive in a variety of ways Monday night.

For one thing, it set the early tone. Griffin threw down a dunk in the opening couple of minutes and then followed with three straight jump shots before missing a 20-footer with 2:25 left in the first quarter.

“The main thing I told him, you shot it and you didn’t think about it,” Ryan Gomes said after practice Tuesday, the day after the Clippers’ 99-95 victory against New Orleans.

“Those are good shots for him and we want him to take those. Sometimes early in the shot clock, that might be the best shot we can get.”

The Clippers won their second game of the season and their first in the last 10, and clung to their narrow lead down the stretch, holding tight to the hoop life raft.

“We made mistakes defensively but our effort, our energy, our rotations were a little bit better,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “We contested shots better. We did little things. Now we made some mistakes offensively, but we were still able to get some stops.... It’s a process.”

But the first order of business for Gomes on Tuesday morning was getting a new look.

“It’s time for a haircut,” he said. “We got the win, I’ve got to make sure I get a haircut every time we win. Hopefully I’ll get a lot of haircuts, but I won’t be going bald.”

Gomes had two points against the Hornets, but they loomed large, the ones putting the Clippers ahead for good with 37.7 seconds remaining. His putback gave them a 95-93 lead.

“If it was a Game 7 of the NBA Finals, no sweat, I’d have done the same thing,” he said, smiling. “I think they lost sight of me usually because I was at the small forward.

“That play was designed for me to go inside and be the offensive rebounder.”

More Griffin

Gomes spoke about Griffin’s multifaceted attack.

“He can go off one leg, off two, as you could see against the Knicks on the fast break, that was off two” legs, Gomes said. “He can just do it either way. It’s the relentlessness to attack the basket: ‘Is the defense going to foul me, or I’m going to finish because that’s how athletic I am.’

“And that’s the mentality he has.”

Injury update

Chris Kaman did a bit more in practice, as did Baron Davis.

Kaman has been out for two weeks because of a sprained left ankle, and Davis has missed 11 of the last 12 games with an injured left knee. Randy Foye (strained left hamstring) did not practice.

For Del Negro, it was enough that Kaman finally had a workout session of some substance.

“We’ll see if it swells up tomorrow and see what kind of push he has on it,” Del Negro said. “I’m not expecting him till early next week.”

Players are naturally more optimistic when it comes to getting back in the lineup.

“Then they get out there and it swells up, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know it would happen,’ ” Del Negro said.

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