"Blake Griffin kept Wilson Holloway in his heart, and over it, for a little while Tuesday night, paying homage to his late friend by wearing a blue T-shirt from Holloway during pregame warmups.

Holloway and Griffin were supposed to have gotten together Monday and the Thunder-Clippers game was to have been the first time he played in front of Holloway and family and friends as an NBA player in Oklahoma City.

Griffin, instead, served as a pallbearer at Holloway's funeral Monday and wore the shirt with the No. 71 of the Tulsa offensive lineman on it, with the inspirational motto, "Just keep smiling."

"That was a T-shirt he had made when he was going through his whole deal," Griffin said after the Thunder beat the Clippers, 111-88, at Oklahoma City Arena, using a 15-0 run to close out the first half. "He sent it to me awhile ago."

This was the Clippers' first game since Griffin learned of Holloway's death of complications from Hodgkin's lymphoma Wednesday. A whirlwind of All-Star activities followed, and when he and his parents got on a plane Sunday night, his mother, Gail, said her son was "exhausted."

Griffin looked it and sounded as though he had a bad cold, hoarse and sniffling through interviews in the morning. But he had enough left in reserve to nearly pull off his first triple-double: A game-high 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. It was his 47th double-double of the season.

"He is the man here," said Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant. "He is still the man here in Oklahoma City.""