Another day in the NBA: Suspensions all around

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The question wasn’t even quite finished before Blake Griffin knew where it was going and answered it.

‘Definitely. Definitely,’ he said. ‘I’ll be ready.’

That would the Clippers’ next game against Andre Miller and the Trail Blazers, at Portland on Jan. 20. Subtitle it: This time, it’s personal.

Miller crashed hard, and intentionally, into Griffin, blindsiding the Clippers’ rookie power forward in the fourth quarter, and doing his best imitation of a point guard turned guided missile. The NBA on Monday suspended Miller for one game for ‘excessive and unnecessary contact’ with Griffin.

Brian Cook of the Clippers received a two-game suspension for his flagrant foul two against Joel Przybilla in a separate incident.

Unlike the Cook play, there was no call on the floor on Miller vs. Griffin. Once the league reviewed the video, Miller was assessed a flagrant foul two.

‘It wasn’t taken care of during the game,’ Griffin said in the hallway before the Clippers’ game against the Kings on Monday evening. ‘I’m glad something was done about it. But I’m still going to play the same way, no matter what people do. They can do whatever they want to me and I’ll be ready for it.’

The rookie is feeling like a marked man ... sort of.

‘Oh yeah, a little bit,” Griffin said. “A little bit. For whatever reason, I am a little bit.’

Was there any explanation about the non-call? ‘I’m not sure,’ Griffin said. ‘I’d have to say they didn’t see it. I hope they didn’t see it. Just because something like that –- I don’t know if you can overlook that. Whatever his intentions were, I don’t mind. He can keep doing it.’

Griffin was restrained on the court and equally measured on Monday even though he knew what Miller had said after the game. Miller told Jason Quick of the Oregonian that he “actually wanted to get him harder.”

Miller contended Griffin ‘got me good’ a couple of times.

‘So an opportunity was there, and if I got a flagrant foul -- cool. But I’m surprised they didn’t even see it,’ he told Quick. ‘…If there’s an opportunity there, you have to send a message.’

Can hardly wait for Griffin’s reply.

--Lisa Dillman