A leader has emerged in Blake Griffin

There are many similarities between the 2011 Blake Griffin and the 2015 Blake. He still can defy gravity on a regular basis, he still has that natural knack for passing and he still strikes fear into defenders when rolling to the rim after setting a pick for Paul. However, some things have changed and Blake is many ways is not the same. Some differences are obvious, he has that smooth midrange game that barely existed and he has somewhat now morphed into a small forward-power forward hybrid with his passing and dribbling skills being taken to the next level and he has larger reigns on the Clippers offense than ever before. But the biggest and probably the most important change - Griffin has become the leader the Clips always expected.

In Game 4 of the Clippers' 114-105 victory over the Spurs there was a moment when Griffin was the only star on the court. Paul had to sit with foul trouble and DJ had to join him since Coach Popovich decided to employ the 'Hack-a-DJ' infamous strategy. Without the Clips' best passer and rebounder Griffin needed to take a lead on both ends of the court for the Clips to stay alive at a crucial moment. It was sink or swim and Griffin responded. He put up a sublime near triple double performance finishing with a stat line of 20 points. 19 rebounds (career high) and 7 assists. With every game he looks more and more like the leader of the Clippers team, a title that used to unquestionably belong to Paul.

"Blake has taken a lead on both ends of the floor now" said Clippers SF Matt Barnes. "He really has the complete game on offense".

Blake has maybe more than anyone else on the team bought into Docs philosophy of "if the opponent takes something away from you, what else can you do to help the team".

The ball wasn't dropping for Blake in the 4th quarter, he finished 1-5 in the period yet he still looked dominant with his passing and rebounding, both just as important as scoring in the playoffs. Now Blake he's become extremely good at leading by example but he's also more vocal then ever. About the career best rebounding performance he put on Blake simply said "that's what we needed. I just had an opportunity".

Like Austin Rivers, Blake came through for the Clips when they needed it most. That's what leaders do.