Clippers get a scare, but hold off Timberwolves

Almost reluctantly, the Clippers are giving themselves subtle pats on their own backs for their improving defense.
They acknowledge they still have some ground to cover, but whatever lid they put on the basket at the final buzzer Monday night could qualify as the stop of the season.
When Minnesota’s Kevin Love couldn’t coax a put-back to crawl over the rim as time expired at Staples Center, the Clippers escaped with a 109-107 victory.
“We play a lot faster this year and obviously that gives the other team an opportunity to score a little more, but we’ve got to get stops,” guard Chris Paul said. “It’s not good enough at times to be there because even though we’re there, teams are making shots. We’ve got to force them to miss.”
The Timberwolves, a night after shredding the Lakers in the same building, never went away as they chased the Clippers down the stretch. They had three shots to tie the game after taking possession with 6.9 seconds left.
Kevin Martin got the first shot, but he was obstructed when DeAndre Jordan jumped out on him on a switch.
Center Nikola Pekovic got the rebound and put up a short hook that missed, then Love had his chance to clean it up.
“My natural instinct was to try to rush and put it up there,” said Love, who had 23 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists. “It sat on the rim and like I said, 99 out of 100 times that goes in. That was my bad.”
The Clippers got the sigh of relief instead and even though they gave up 107 points and allowed 96 shots, they were somewhat enthused by their defensive effort.
“It’s funny, they scored 107 points but shot 41 percent, so defensively that’s really good,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “But they had 96 shots. I look at one number and I love it, but then I look at another and I think they gave up a lot of points.”
Griffin led the Clippers with 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and his newfound attention to the defensive end seems to be paying off.
He had to guard Love on the heels of battling LeBron James in Miami last week.
“Every year I try to take another step. This year is no different,” Griffin said. “Really, help defense is a huge thing because in our system it’s all about help defense and that trust somebody’s going to have your back if you have somebody else’s back.
“I take a lot of pride in defense, despite what it might look like.”
Paul had 21 points and 11 assists and Jamal Crawford and 18 points and six assists. His 51-foot bank shot at the third-quarter buzzer gave the Clippers an 85-80 lead.
“I think with plays like that, a lot of guys don’t want to shoot because it will ruin their percentage,” Crawford said. “I tried to go for it. I think plays like can uplift the crowd and can hopefully lift the team up to get a win.”
The Clippers shot 58.7 percent in the first half and still only led by one point. They pushed their lead to 86-80 early in the fourth quarter, but Minnesota came back to take an 87-86 lead.
That’s when the Clippers began to impose their will and the Timberwolves’ shot started to go flat.
Crawford began a 12-0 run with a three-point play and Adelman had to call a timeout with 6:19 left with the Clippers ahead, 96-87, but they weren’t done. Crawford hit a jumper after a steal by Matt Barnes to give the Clippers an 11-point lead.
It was Barnes’ first game after missing all three on the road trip with a bruised thigh.
Martin finished with 30 points and Pekovic had 25 points and 10 rebounds.
But when the Clippers needed defense, they brought itThe Timberwolves shot only 34.8 percent in the final period.
“We’re almost there,” Paul said. “A lot of times tonight we were in the right spots but I still think we’ve got to get better rebounding. That’s collectively. We can’t rely on Blake and (DJ) to get all the rebounds. We’ve got to get in there and collective rebound.”