That didn’t take long.

Blake Griffin didn’t even make it to Opening Night before he was struck down … by the Clippers Curse.

(Cue creepy music, imagine the late Vincent Price reading this to you aloud.)

Turns out the Clippers’ blue-chip rookie forward, the top pick in the NBA draft … has a broken knee cap … and will miss at least a month of the season. Maybe more.

Here is the news story.

This is nothing new, of course. Bad things happening to the Clippers for no good reason.

Let’s review:

Well, actually, if you want to see the all-timer of reviews, feel free to spend the 20-30 minutes plowing through this 20,000 word opus by Bill Simmons of espn.com, NBA wonk and Clippers season-ticket holder. Written on the eve of the 2009 NBA draft, when it was clear he was going to the Clips with the top pick.

The concise version of this? We can do that.

Let’s start with Bill Walton, meant to be the centerpiece of the team when it was in San Diego. Sadly, Walton suffered recurring problems with his feet, played fewer than 150 games in six seasons with the franchise (which moves to Los Angeles in the meantime) … and then they gave up on him, and he goes to Boston — where he played nearly every game for an NBA champion.

Next, Terry Cummings. The Clippers took the sculpted power forward with the No. 8 pick of the  1981 draft … and two years later he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition. He was put on medication, his production plummets because the meds make him sluggish, the Clips trade him a year later … and he goes on to play for 14 more years and score 20,000 points. Something about getting the right meds.

Next, Danny Manning. The Clippers take him with the first pick of the 1988 draft, and 26 games into his Clippers career, he blows out his knee and is never the same. He certainly is never the game-changing, dominating player he was at Kansas.

And now, Blake Griffin. Already hurt twice in his Clippers career, who suffered this injury while making a fairly routine play (a dunk) … just after he made a spectacular play (a blocked shot) at the other end of the court in the Clips’ final exhibition game.

He will miss the opener against the Lakers … and maybe 20 games after that. It’s a “non-displaced fracture,” the club is happy to tell you, but busted knee caps and power forwards … not a good combination.

Coach/general manager Mike Dunleavy is taking a “what, me worry”  approach to this.

On Friday, a few hours before Griffin hurt his knee, Coach Mike sought to minimize Griffin’s importance to the franchise, saying, “He’s not changing our culture. He’s a terrific player. There’s nothing about his game that I don’t like. What’s going to make us into a winning team is certainly his contribution, but there’s also all the other guys we’ve had here that are healthy and are good players. We’re very fortunate to have Blake. I like his attitude, his mind-set, but I would not put that kind of pressure on him.”

And that came about a week after San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, perhaps the best coach in the league, raved about Griffin after he scored 23 points against the Spurs in an exhibition. Said Coach Pop: “He’s a monster. He deserved to be picked where he was picked, that’s for sure.”

But would he have been better off going second, in the draft? Third? Or on any pick that wasn’t one held by the Clippers? Doesn’t it seem as if pulling on a Clippers jersey is an invitation to 1) poor performance, 2) lots of losing and 3) catastrophic injury?

Have to say, we’re beginning to wonder.