Report: Griffin's expected return pushed back to late March

It appears Blake Griffin's return to the Los Angeles Clippers' lineup will have to wait. His timetable has been pushed back to later this month, according to the Orange County Register's Dan Woike.

Just 11 days ago, Griffin said that he was "very close" to returning to action from a broken right shooting hand suffered punching a team employee in January. Clippers coach and GM Doc Rivers had also sounded optimistic about the power forward's recovery.

Griffin hasn't progressed in the way the organization hoped, Woike reports.

Once Griffin is medically cleared to play, he must then serve a four-game suspension as a result of the Jan. 23 altercation with Clippers equipment manager Matias Testi. Griffin hasn't played since Christmas Day. He was recovering from a quad injury that cost him 13 games when the punching incident occurred on a road trip in Toronto.

The Clippers are 25-9 without Griffin, a fairly exceptional record considering he remains their leading scorer at 23.2 points per game.