RealGM

As far back as anyone can remember, Blake Griffin has seen the world through a set of crosshairs. Out-of-reach fire bells, high fences or anything that big brother Taylor could do -- it all represented something to be slapped, hurdled or topped. "I'd ask my parents, 'Do you think I can do that?' " Griffin recalls. "If they said, 'Yeah,' then I wouldn't do it. It had to be something someone thought I couldn't do."

The biggest criticism of the 21-year-old Griffin is that he plays too hard, making him a greater injury risk. But his ­human-missile approach is leaving craters across the league. While LA has been a cellar-dweller for much of the season, Griffin's highlight reel at the quarter-pole rivals what a lot of guys will do through 82 games. The symbolic changing of the power forward occurred Dec. 1, when Griffin's 31-point, 13-rebound night led the Clips to a win over Tim Duncan's Spurs for the first time since 2006. And Griffin's 44-point, 15-board effort in a loss to the Knicks on Nov. 20 ­included two of the season's top-rated dunks on nba.com: a soaring throwdown over 7'1" rookie Timofey Mozgov and a sick skills clinic in which Griffin scooped up a loose ball near midcourt, drove hard to the right, spun left with the ease of a point guard, then crushed it over Danilo Gallinari. "It's not how high Blake jumps, but how strong and quick he is getting up," says Neil Olshey, the Clippers VP of basketball operations. "He's going up for his second jump when most guys are still coming down from their first."

Taylor Griffin, who teamed with Blake at Oklahoma and now plays in Belgium, was watching via League Pass when his brother made Mozgov look small. "I replayed it 10 times," Taylor says. "He's not just back. He's better than ever."

Ric Bucher, ESPN