It’s sometimes difficult to figure out just how badly the Clippers want this.

They let a wounded, fractured Portland Trail Blazers team minus All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge troll into Staples Center Friday and push them to the brink before pulling out razor-thin 98-97 victory.

They allowed a team with fading playoff hopes and missing All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge drop a 15-0 run on them in the second quarter and a 19-11 run in the fourth quarter to force the Clippers to play catch-up all night.

But amid a game-long struggle they found a way, mapping out a path to a win they had to have.

Chris Paul, probing in the closing seconds to find an advantageous matchup, got singled up with Portland forward J.J. Hickson and dove to the basket to bank in a tough one-handed layup in with five seconds remaining to put the Clippers up 98-87.

On the other end the Clippers collapsed on Portland guard Wesley Matthews, forcing him into a desperate heave and held on for the victory.

Paul finished with 20 points and 14 assists, no points bigger than his last two in which Hickson rotated to him off a pick and roll immediately blew past him for the winning basket.

“I thought they might trap,” Paul said. “But once I saw (Portland guard) Raymond Felton go away I saw an opportunity thre and I just tried to attack and get to the rim.”

Prior to all that, Randy Foye pulled the Clippers out of a 2-point hole with his fifth three-pointer with 47.8 to give the Clippers a 96-95 lead. Jamal Crawford answered with a jumper to put Portland ahead again, but that just set the stage for Paul.

Foye and Blake Griffin each had 20 points, with Griffin adding 13 rebounds as the Clippers won their third in a row.

The art of elevating their game to another level is something the Clippers are engaged in a desperate search for. It’s a must-have skill but an elusive find given the fast-paced schedule, the lack of practice time and a roster that’s changed dramatically throughout the last four months.

For the time being they will settle for a comfortable level of consistency and enough moments of dominance to piece together the necessary victory total to achieve their playoff aspirations.

“It obviously wasn’t our best performance,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “But we’ll take it.”

By Vincent Bonsignore
Staff Writer

The next time Clippers forward Reggie Evans responds to an inside joke among teammates he’s going to take a good look around who might be watching – and definitely check the NBA fine scale to see how much it might cost him.

Evan was docked $25,000 dollars by the league Friday for making an obscene gesture during Monday’s home against New Orleans.

Essentially he was caught flipping the bird to someone.

Evans admits he did it, but wants to make it clear it was not directed at a fan as has been widely speculated on the internet, specifically Deadspin.com.

Or as Evans described Deadspin, “a bogus website.”

“Since I’ve been here I’ve had 19, 20 thousand fans cheering my name. And out of that 19 or thousand I’ve not had one person saying something negative to me,” Evans said Friday. “I think if I would have (really) done something you all would have picked it up on it and asked me about it after the game.”

Instead, Evans explained, he was responding to a running inside joke he has with teammates DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin.

The three teammates call each other names during practice and games – typically cupcake or cheesecake – and anyone whose spent time in the Clippers locker room can vouch for that.

When Evans completed a layup in traffic and drew a foul against the Hornets, Jordan and Griffin shouted from the bench, “Good play, cupcake.”

Evans responded by discreetly using his middle finger to scratch his upper lip.

“And if you see, I’m looking at them. If you look at the film I’m looking at them, that’s who I’m looking at,” Evans said. “It’s an indie joke, is what’s going on. We’ve got a tight team.

I’m smiling. I’m looking at DJ and Blake. Like, ‘ohhh I can’t want to get on the bench and get back at you all. But I can’t right now because I’m on the court.”

Evans said he will appeal to the fine, if anything to make sure everyone understands he was not doing it in a mean-spirited way.

“I’m not going to sit up here and disrespect the game,” Evans said.

The Clippers destroyed the Charlotte Bobcats, 111-86, in Chris Paul’s North Carolina homecoming.

Not much of a game, to say the least. Paul was brilliant with 18 points, five rebounds, 14 assists and two steals.

Blake Griffin has 21 points and 10 rebounds while handing the Bobcats their 14th straight loss.

The Clips are back in action Monday in Dallas.

Here are some quotes from after the game:

Clippers forward Blake Griffin

(On playing with Chris Paul)
“He’s a great player. You see the way he passes the ball and how he manages the ball, manages the time, manages the whole game, and at any given point he can score if he needs to. Having a point guard be that kind of player is huge.”

(On whether the alley-oops are set plays or ‘eye contact’ in the flow of the game plays)
“Any time we draw up an alley-oop play it seems to not work, and any time we’re just out there and there’s eye contact that’s normally when it works. I think that’s the way we like to play, freely and everybody moving around the screens, and that’s what worked for us tonight.”

Clippers guard Chris Paul

(On tonight’s game)
“We knew how important this game was. It has been a long road trip. We gave one away in Cleveland – they played well but we felt like we gave one away – and this was one of those games where we knew that if we came in and made a difference early that we could put them away. There’s no reason to let a team like that stick around and then in the fourth quarter let them find a way to beat you.”

(On the mindset playing against a struggling team)
“It’s one of those things where it’s about us, and I think it’s like that for us every night. Right now we feel like as the second place team in the West we have a target on our back coming into every game so we have to approach it with the right mindset.”

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro

(On tonight’s game)
“There were three things I felt were good: the field goal percentage was good, our rebounding was pretty good and our assist to turnover ratio was good. We controlled the tempo even though we put them on the line too much with 40-plus free throws. We got into the penalty early in the fourth quarter, but overall we controlled the tempo.”

(On the second unit)
“I wanted the bench guys to get more minutes, but when they (the Bobcats) went on a run the way they did, I had to control the game by bringing back in Chris (Paul) and Blake (Griffin). After a few minutes I brought back in the second unit to finish it off.”

(On Eric Bledsoe)
“I didn’t want to play him, but we had a good enough lead. He has been out for a while, so it is going to be a process. When we have a lead like we had tonight I want to put him in and get his confidence level up and see how he feels condition-wise. He has great athleticism. He fought a lot. He is still a very young player and he is trying to get back to the level he was last year.”

The Clippers played their first game without Chauncey Billups Wednesday and understandably it was a struggle.

And ultimately a loss as the fell 99-92 to the Cleveland Cavaliers to snap a four-game road winning streak.

Billups was lost Monday for the season to a torn left Achilles tendon injury and a Clippers team low an energy took the floor against the Cavaliers. Billups isn’t the Clippers leading scorer and he isn’t one of their two All-Stars,

But he is a hugely important veteran prescence and that loss of presence was felt Wednesday as the Clippers struggled against one of the lowly teams in the NBA.

The Clippers struggled from the field, hitting just 41 percent of their shots from the field.

Blake Griffin had 25 points and15 rebounds and Chris Paul had 16 points an 12 assists. Randy Foye, who started for Billups, had 15 point while former Cavalier Mo Williams finished with just five points on 2 of 10 shooting in his return to Cleveland.

The Cavaliers were without prized rookie point guard Kyrie Irving, who is suffering from a concussion, but Ramon Sessions – whom the Lakers are reportedly interested in – stepped in and had 24 points and 13 assists.

The Clippers got the worst news possible on guard Chauncey Billups when an MRI Tuesday revealed he’s torn his left Achilles’ tendon.

The injury, which Billups suffered during rhe fourth quarter of Monday’s win over the Orlando Magic, will sideline him for the remainder of the season.

Billups is averaging 15 points and four assists for the Clippers, who are 15-7 and in second place in the Pacific Division.

With Billups out, Mo Williams will likely move into the starting lineup with second-year guard Eric Bledsoe expected to garner more minutes off the bench.

It takes menatl toughness to win on the road.

And the Clippers are developing that.

Even without Chauncey Billups, who was lost to an a left injury Achilles’ tendon injury, the Clippers won their fourth straight road game in a 107-102 win over the Orlando Magic in overtime.

The team that won nine road games all last season is now showing they can win tough games in difficult venues – a definite sign of a serious contender.

Caron Butler hit a huge three-pointer in overtime for the Clippers, who trailed by 15 points at one point and four in over time only to finish on an 11-2 run to close the game out,

Butler stared the game 1 for 7 from the field but was there at the end to help win it for the Clippers.

“My teammates kept believing in me,” said Billups, whop also had an important offensive rebound in OT.

The Clippers are back in action Wednesday at Cleveland.