Blake Griffin: Doctor says elbow looks even better than expected

Blake Griffin spoke to the media Wednesday for the first time since having surgery Feb. 9 to remove a staph infection in his right elbow.

“Feels good, feels better,” Griffin said. “I saw the doctor yesterday and I got some good news, so everything is either on track or looking better than it was. Still really don’t know a great timetable, but I’m happy with how it feels.”

The Clippers said Feb. 9 that their superstar power forward would miss at least three weeks before he is reevaluated. Luckily for the Clippers, one of those weeks fell during the All-Star break, when they didn’t have any games Feb. 12-18.

“It helps that the All-Star break was right now, and I’m not missing any games really helps,” he said. “If I had to sit through games the past six, seven days, it would have been a lot tougher.”

Griffin said that he has been unable to exercise since having the surgery because he’s not allowed to get sweat on the area. Instead, he said, he has gotten some much-needed rest.

“Just watched a bunch of movies, a bunch of TV,” he said.

When the Clippers landed in Oklahoma City on Feb. 8, Griffin was taken to the hospital because his elbow was unusually swollen; he had it drained in New York earlier that week while dealing with bursitis. He said Wednesday that he began to realize that he had a problem even before then, when the Clippers played at Cleveland on Feb. 5.

“I mean, I’ve gotten my elbow drained 20 times in my life and never had a problem,” Griffin said. “I didn’t really think a lot of it, and then Thursday, before the Cleveland game, it was really giving me a lot of problems. And then after the Cleveland game, I couldn’t extend my arm without pain.... Over that 24-hour span, that’s when I really knew something was wrong.”

Griffin returned to Los Angeles on Feb. 8 and then had surgery the following day to remove the infection.

“Pretty sure the infection is completely gone,” Griffin said. “I think they got all of the infection during the surgery.”

The Clippers are 2-1 without Griffin so far, having beaten Dallas and Houston after they lost to the Thunder on Feb. 8. DeAndre Jordan has stepped up in Griffin’s absence, having 20-20 performances in his last two games.

“It was huge,” Griffin said of Jordan. “He’s played really, really well. And I think it was great for us, that last game in Dallas, especially with us having three starters out, how we played with the same intensity no matter what.”

Griffin, who spoke to the media while wearing a big black brace around his elbow, said he expects to have the stitches removed on Tuesday. He said he hopes that the surgery will finally solve his bursa sac issue, a longtime injury that he has struggled with.

After having the surgery, Griffin said, he had a drain in for 24 hours. He said he hasn’t had to have his elbow drained since, something his doctor said was a good sign.

“Hopefully, my elbow will be normal again,” Griffin said.