3 Awesome, In-Your-Face Dunks by the Clippers' Blake Griffin

The NBA playoffs are upon us, which means game intensity is through the roof and players leave it all out on the floor.

Already there have been several scrums between rivals, denoting the physicality of the games, as well as the emotional back and forth that players experience. The Bulls-Bucks series took a quantum leap of fierceness when players lost their cool and a rugby scrum broke out on the floor.

With that kind of intensity on display, enter the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin.

When Griffin entered the league in 2010 (an injury kept him out of the 2009 season when he was drafted by the Clippers) with a fine pedigree of being named college Player of the Year out of Oklahoma, he made an immediate impact — at least, that is, on ESPN. He quickly became known for his posterizing dunks, and his aerobatic highlights were a nightly staple on the sports network.

But Griffin needed a lot of work on the rest of his game. Since his rookie year, he has steadily improved his low post game and has developed a deadly mid-range jump shot.

But few in the league can dunk a ball in traffic with the kind of authority that Griffin throws it down with. Here are three awesome dunks in the third quarter of Game 1 vs. the San Antonio Spurs:

Note the universal look of shame and mortification on the faces of those who are on the receiving end of the facials.

I love the playoffs.