Coach Doc Rivers gives Jamal Crawford a fist-bump during Thursday’s 96-94 Clippers victory over Portland/AP photo by Alex Gallardo

– There is nothing like a buzzer-beating victory to get a struggling team back on the right track. J.J. Redick’s last-second shot after he received a bounce pass from Chris Paul delivered between the legs of Trail Blazers center Mason Plumlee, could do just that. The Clippers had lost three in a row and seven of 10 and were coming off a brutal road trip, during which they went 1-4.

– Jamal Crawford has been up and down this season. He’s shooting just 32.4 percent from 3-point range, his lowest percentage since shooting 30.8 percent while playing for Portland in 2011-12. But Crawford has always been a clutch performer, and that still rings true. He scored 25 points on 12 of 21 shooting – 3 of 6 from beyond the arc – in this one.

– Reserve post Cole Aldrich had a nice 15 minutes and 21 seconds in this game. He scored seven points on 3 of 5 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, blocked two shots and had a steal and an assist. This guy plays hard.

– Paul Pierce was 0 of 5 from the field. He’s shooting a career-low 34.8 percent from the field. His previous low was 40.2 percent in 2003-04 in Boston. Pierce is shooting just 30.8 percent from deep. That is by far his worst since shooting 29.9 percent in that same ’03-’04 season. That’s not to mention he doesn’t play much defense. While it might be nice to have the 38-year-old Pierce on the team because he’s a future Hall of Famer with a championship ring (Boston ’08), he’s not helping this team on the floor. Perhaps he is in the locker room.

– The Trail Blazers shot just 40 percent from the field, 25 percent (6 of 24) from deep. Part of that was Portland missing open shots, part of it was the suffocating defense the Clippers played at times. Again, at times, because the Clippers did show fatigue from yet another back-to-back. The Clippers have had 14 back-to-backs this season. Their past six games were all played under that umbrella.