Austin Rivers, center, of the Clippers battles with Houston’s James Harden and Dwight Howard during Wednesday’s game at Houston/AP photo by Pat Sullivan

The Clippers’ second unit took some heat after its rather lousy performance in Tuesday night’s 108-87 loss at San Antonio. In it, Clippers reserves scored only 20 points and shot just 6 of 22 from the field (27.2 percent). Spurs reserves scored 51 points.

But Wednesday, it was a different deal. The Clippers’ second unit scored 47 points and shot a combined 17 of 29 (58.6 percent) in their 122-106 win at Houston.

Struggling Wes Johnson shot 5 of 5, Austin Rivers was 4 of 8, Paul Pierce 3 of 6, Jamal Crawford 4 of 9 and Cole Aldrich made his only shot.

Starting point guard Chris Paul, who stuck up for the bench a night earlier, liked what he saw.

“They definitely challenged themselves,” Paul said. “Like we said, in San Antonio last night, we are a team and we stick together.”