The Nightman Cometh

I like dunks. You should, too. Dunks involve cool things like jumping really high and cupcakes. Blake Griffin has yet to incorporate any baked goods into his around-the-rim repertoire but he already has 90 dunks in his first 39 games. It would have been an upset for anyone to dislodge Dwight Howard from the top spot of the dunk leaderboard but it's shocking that the new leader looks like the marginally cooler stepbrother of Brian Scalabrine. Griffin's very un-Scalabrinesque play has been the driving force behind the Clippers 10-4 record over their last 14 games. He extended his streak of consecutive double-doubles to 26 games last night in a victory over the (two-time defending champion) Lakers. However, the Clippers victory was more about a massive outside shooting advantage than a standout performance from Griffin and, indeed, his string of 20 point-10 rebound games was snapped at 14. Despite poor games from each player, the matchup between Griffin and Pau Gasol was the most interesting subplot to a surprisingly dull game. They are the two best non-German power forwards in the Western Conference but produce in very different ways. In an increasingly homogeneous NBA world, this matchup presented a contrast of styles rarely seen among elite players.