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Barring a catastrophic late season collapse, the Los Angeles Clippers should return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-2006 season. Making the postseason will be an important step for a franchise that’s seen the playoffs just four times in 28 seasons in Los Angeles, but the Clippers could stand do some damage in their return. With Blake Griffin and Chris Paul’s contracts coming up relatively soon (not to mention Vinny Del Negro’s), the Clippers need to put up a good showing in the playoffs to keep the vultures from swarming.

Although the Clippers don’t follow the mold of your traditional contender due to their lackluster defense (20th in defensive efficiency), they are a team with very specific strengths that could overwhelm an opponent in the right matchup. Although their first round draw will likely be out of their hands, here’s what the Clippers should be rooting for as the Western Conference playoff picture shakes out.

Pick-and-Roll

It’s the bread-and-butter play for the Clippers, and despite its predictability, defenses as a whole have failed to stop it with any sort of consistency. The Clippers rank first in the league in points per possession (PPP) on shots the ballhandler takes in the pick-and-roll, while Paul ranks sixth among all players. Point being, if Paul gets a favorable switch or the space to operate coming off a screen, he’s one of the best point producers in the league.

To properly blow up a pick-and-roll, you need to have mobile, intelligent big men. The Lakers are a perfect example of this. Pau Gasol is one of the best in the business at showing hard on a screen, then recovering properly. He’s a big reason the Lakers rank 9th in pick-and-roll ballhandler defense, even with the molasses-like duo of Derek Fisher and Steve Blake covering the ball most of the year.

Although they probably won’t meet in the first round, offensively the Clippers would love a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, who rank as the league’s worst defensive team in PPP allowed to ballhandlers in the pick-and-roll. The Spurs have immobile bigs and lack the ability to switch their bigs on to guards -- a huge reason why the previous meetings between these two teams have been so high scoring.

If the regular season has been any indicator, the Clippers are going to rely heavily on Paul’s scoring and the pick-and-roll come playoff time. As long as they avoid the Dallas Mavericks (2nd in the league) and the Lakers, they should be able to ride that play to plenty of success.

Best case: San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz
Worst case: Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder

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LOS ANGELES -- It should come as no surprise Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is starting to feel the backlash this season of the fame and notoriety he enjoyed last season.

The only thing we like better than the story of a breakout player is the subsequent story of said player’s downfall. In the case of Griffin, it’s not so much a story of his downfall but how one of the most popular players in the league last season has turned into arguably the most polarizing one this season, at least amongst many of his peers around the league.

“I’ve heard that,” Griffin said with a smile after the Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings 109-94 on Saturday. “It’s not something I embrace or try to do. It just kind of happens. I’ve seemed to have had a good week as far as that goes.”

Griffin’s week included dunking on Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol so harshly on multiple occasions Wednesday night that the Lakers asked the NBA to review the plays. The league eventually decided Griffin’s third quarter shove from behind on Gasol deserved to be a flagrant-one foul.

“I don’t know about that one,” Griffin said about the league's upgraded foul. “I don’t know about that one. I felt it was kind of a nudge and then some extra after that. I just kind of sold it but if you send it in that many times and say enough about it I guess it forced their hands to do something.”

His week continued on Thursday night when he was called an “actor” by Kings forward DeMarcus Cousins after the two got into a shoving match and nearly traded blows.

“I first heard about it from my acting coach, he sent me an e-mail,” Griffin joked after Saturday’s game, responding to Cousins' comments for the first time. “He was obviously thrilled. It was a compliment. I guess he’s seen some commercials and stuff and I appreciate it.”

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Clippers (33-22) vs. Sacramento Kings (19-36) at Staples Center, 7:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Hollywood Griffin: The main storyline in this game is pretty easy. All eyes will be focused on Blake Griffin and DeMarcus Cousins after the two shoved each other, and nearly came to blows in the Clippers' 93-85 win over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. After the game, when Griffin refused to discuss the incident, Cousins said, “Of course that's what Blake is going to say because he's in L.A., where actors belong. He's an actor, so of course he would say that." When Cousins was asked about his fifth foul on Griffin with more than a minute left in the game, he said, “I guess the wind from my hand hit him in the eye and I guess he got fouled by the wind. I'm not sure.” Needless to say there may be some unfinished business between the two 48 hours later.

2. Foye on fire: Clippers guard Randy Foye has gone from being viewed as the weak link in the starting lineup, to one of the group’s most consistent performers. He continued his strong run of late in Sacramento on Thursday, scoring a game-high 20 points (7-of-17 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line). Foye has now led the team in scoring in two of the last three games, and is the Clippers second leading scorer behind Griffin in the last six games. In the last six games, Foye is averaging 17.5 points while shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 40.4 percent from beyond the arc.

3. Butler doing it: Foye isn’t the only starter who has picked up his production over the last six games. Over the same stretch, Caron Butler is averaging 14.8 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 52.3 percent from field. In the last two games, Butler is shooting 51.7 percent (15-of-29) from the field and 50.0 percent (6-of-12) from three-point range. Butler scored a season-high 28 points on Wednesday against the Lakers, going 9-of-18 from the field, 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line while grabbing 4 rebounds in 34 minutes. It was the most points for Butler since he had 30 on Dec. 30, 2010 when the Dallas Mavericks. It was the first time this season Butler has had over 25 points for the Clippers.

4. Blake trending down: Griffin had 14 points (7-of-11 from the field and 0-for-4 from the free-throw line) and nine rebounds on Thursday against Sacramento. It was the third straight game Griffin has scored under 16 points. It is the longest streak of his career that Griffin has not scored 16 or more points. Griffin, however, is still the only player this season in the NBA averaging over 20.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Griffin is also shooting 53.8 percent from the floor. In the last 22 years since the 1990-91 season, only four different players have finished a season averaging at least 21 points, 11 rebounds, three assists while shooting over 51 percent from the field. Griffin would be the youngest player to reach those numbers at 23.

5. CP3 to the rescue: In five of his last seven games, Chris Paul has had as many as 10 assists with two or fewer turnovers. No player has had more games with such totals this season. Paul has helped the Clippers rank third in the NBA with 13.36 turnovers per game and are on pace to set the record for the lowest turnover average in franchise history. The lowest turnover average in franchise history was set by the 2007-08 Clippers, who averaged 14.3 turnovers per game. Last season, the Clippers finished the season averaging 16.3 turnovers. Paul has also been a closer for the Clippers this season. In the last five minutes of games with the Clippers within 5 points, Paul is third in the NBA with 119 points.

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul combined to score only 27 points, but the Los Angeles Clippers still pulled off a 93-85 win on the road against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night.

Griffin and Paul's totals were the fifth-lowest the two have posted in a game this season and the lowest of any game all season where they both reached their season average for minutes. The other four games where Paul and Griffin scored 20, 23, 23 and 25 were all double-digit margin contests.

So how did the Clippers beat the Kings in a close game without their stars? Simple: Randy Foye, Caron Butler and Eric Bledsoe.

The perimeter trio combined to score 47 points on 50 percent shooting, tiding the Clippers over while Paul struggled through an awful shooting night and Griffin struggled with DeMarcus Cousins' physicality. It's not the most high-profile tandem, but all three have been effective at times this season. When they're effective together -- with Nick Young a possibility, too -- the Clippers can afford less-than-stellar performances from their stars.

Of course, Thursday's game was against Sacramento, one of the five or six worst teams in the NBA. But the Kings aren't terrible at home -- entering the game, they were above .500 at Power Balance Pavilion, with home wins against three probable playoff teams last month, and a home win over Oklahoma City the month before that.

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Clippers (32-22) vs. Sacramento Kings (19-35) at Power Balance Pavilion, 7 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Starting over: The Clippers will attempt to start a new winning streak Thursday against the Kings after they had their six-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday against the Lakers. It was the team’s longest winning streak since March 18-31, 1992. The Clippers also had a seven-game home winning streak broken in the loss. The Clippers hadn’t won seven straight since 1991. Despite the loss, the Clippers are still 10 games over .500 (32-22). It is only the third time that the Clippers have been more than five games over .500 this many games into a season since moving to Los Angeles in 1984. They finished the season eight games over .500 in 1991-92 and 12 games over .500 in 2005-06. Those are the only two seasons in which the Clippers finished over .500 since moving to L.A. The Clippers’ 32-21 record this season after 53 games is also the second best in franchise history, trailing the 1974-75 Buffalo Braves who were 34-19 after 53 games.

2. Butler did it: If there is an X-factor on the Clippers this season, it’s Caron Butler. The Clippers are 18-9 when he scores 13 or more points and 12-7 when he had 5 or more rebounds. Against the Lakers, Butler scored a season-high 28 points, going 9-of-18 from the field, 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, while grabbing 4 rebounds in 34 minutes. It was the most points Butler has scored in a game since he had 30 on Dec. 30, 2010 as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. It is the first time this season Butler has had over 25 points for the Clippers.

3. Clutch CP3: Clippers guard Chris Paul had 22 points and a season-high 16 assists against the Lakers on Wednesday. It was his 124th career game with at least 20 points and 10 assists and the most assists in a game for Paul since Jan. 26, 2011 when he had 17 for the New Orleans Hornets. It was the 17th time in Paul’s career that he has had 20 or more points and 16 or more assists and the first time since Dec. 18, 2009 when he had 30 points and 19 assists in a win over Denver. Paul is the only player in the NBA this season to average over 19.0 points and 9.0 assists per game and 2.0 steals.

4. Playoffs?: Perhaps the biggest fallout from the Clippers’ loss to the Lakers was where it put them in the race for the Pacific Division. Even if they beat the Kings in Sacramento on Thursday, they will be two full games behind the Lakers, who now hold the all-important tie-breaker if they finish with the same record. Suddenly their goal now with 12 games left in the season will be to secure the No. 4 seed and at least have home court advantage in the first round. If the Clippers beat the Kings they will be two games up on the Grizzlies and Mavericks and three games up on the Rockets and Nuggets.

5. Dunk City: After Blake Griffin’s two highlight reel dunks on Pau Gasol last night, he now has 154 dunks, the most in the NBA by 21. Clippers center DeAndre Jordan is third in the league with 116 dunks. Jordan is the only player in the NBA to have at least 115 dunks and 115 blocks this season. As a team the Clippers have recorded 82 alley-oop dunks this season, most in the NBA, followed by the Lakers with 70 and the Knicks with 59. The Clippers also have recorded the most dunks this season with 318.

Blake Griffin gets some help from Sesame Street's Elmo and Murray to describe some of his best dunks this season.

LOS ANGELES -- DeAndre Jordan left the Clippers' locker room before reporters were allowed in on Wednesday night following the 113-108 loss to the Lakers, but his teammates stood up for him.

There wasn't anything he could do against Lakers center Andrew Bynum, they said, even though Bynum put up 36 points against Jordan and repeatedly outmuscled and outsmarted him in the post.

In fact, Kenyon Martin and Chris Paul both said Jordan did an "excellent" job defending Bynum.

"The kid (Bynum) is a good post player," Martin said. "DeAndre guarded him and made everything tough on him.

"That's all you can do."

Bynum hit 65 percent of his shots in Wednesday's game -- most of which came one-on-one against Jordan -- and didn't turn the ball over. And that was with a sprained ankle that had him listed as questionable before the game.

That was all Jordan, who's making roughly $10 million this season in the first year of a monstrous four-year deal, could do?

No, said Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro. Of course Jordan could have done more against Bynum and the Lakers, Del Negro said.

"But it's not just D.J -- it's everybody," he said. "We've gotta do a better job spinning him baseline, getting help for him, fighting him early and getting him off his box, his sweet spot. Bynum's a load down there -- we all know that."

"It's not just one guy, it's several."

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LOS ANGELES -- Here are video interviews with coach Vinny Del Negro and Blake Griffin and Chris Paul following the Los Angeles Clippers' 113-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday at the Staples Center.

Del Negro said he "didn't particularly like" the way his team played in the first half but thought the second half represented a big improvement.



Griffin, who took a while to emerge from the training room following the game, said he thought his huge dunks over Pau Gasol would help the Clippers' overall momentum but noted that they clearly didn't too much.



Paul said the loss to the Lakers hurts the Clippers because of the tiebreaker that was at stake. Still, he said, there's plenty of season left to make up ground.

Clippers (32-21) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (34-20) at Staples Center, 7:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. They’re streaking: Maybe Vinny Del Negro should be on the hot seat more often. After Del Negro's job security was reportedly in doubt after the Clippers lost three games in three days, the Clippers have won six straight for the first time in 20 years. The Clippers’ 94-75 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday gave the Clippers their first six-game winning streak since March 18-31, 1992. It is the longest time in NBA history between winning streaks of more than five times. The previous longest drought was over 12 years, by the Denver Nuggets, between January 1991 and December 2003. The longest winning streak in franchise history is 11 games from Nov. 3-23, 1974 when the Clippers were the Buffalo Braves. Since relocating to Los Angeles in 1984, the Clippers have had just three winning streaks of six games or longer. The Clippers' longest winning streak in Los Angeles was eight games from Nov. 30-Dec.15, 1991.

2. Foye on fire: Clippers guard Randy Foye tied a franchise-record for most 3-pointers made in a game against the Mavericks on Monday when he hit eight three-pointers, going 8-of-15 from beyond the arc. Foye finished with a season-high 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. In the last three games, Foye has been averaging 21.6 points and 3.3 assists while shooting 57 percent (27-of-47) from the field, 48.4 percent (16-of-33) from three-point range and is also 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. Foye has improved his play in the absence of Mo Williams, who also had a big game from beyond the arc this season when he hit seven three-pointers in the Clippers’ win over San Antonio last month.

3. Big games: The Clippers have been one of the best teams this season against good teams. The Clippers are 19-12 this season against teams at or above .500. Their .613 win percentage against such teams is the fifth-highest in the NBA this season. The Clippers have also won four of the last five meetings with the Lakers as the home team. That is the Clippers’ best five-game stretch at home in the all-time series since both teams moved into the Staples Center entering the 1999-2000 season. The Clippers and Lakers have split their two games this season, with the home team winning each game. The Clippers won both times the teams played this preseason.

4. Lob City: Despite getting grief for the nickname, the Clippers have lived up to the “Lob City” tag this season. They’ve recorded 82 alley-oop dunks this season, most in the NBA, followed by the Lakers with 70 and the Knicks with 59. The Clippers also have recorded the most dunks this season with 318. The Clippers have two of the top three dunkers in the NBA as Blake Griffin leads the league with 155 dunks and DeAndre Jordan is third with 116. Lakers center Andrew Bynum is fourth with 115 dunks this season while Pau Gasol is 13th with 65 dunks.

5. Playoff push: Wednesday’s game between the Clippers and Lakers will go a long way in deciding which team will win the Pacific Division this season. A Lakers win would give them a 2.5-game lead on the Clippers plus the head-to-head tiebreaker, while a Clippers win would move the Clippers within a half game of the Lakers and give the Clippers the head-to-head tiebreaker. The winner of the Pacific Division will likely get the third seed in the West behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs and avoid playing the Thunder until the Conference Finals. As it stands now the Lakers would play the Mavericks and the Clippers would play the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs if the season ended today.

Sure, the Dallas Mavericks were without both Jason Kidd and Lamar Odom in Monday night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

But the Clippers didn't beat the Mavs solely because those two were absent. The Clippers hammered Dallas 94-75 because they played a much better game than the defending champions did -- and a more complete one.

This victory effectively validates the Clippers' recent winning streak, which has now stretched to six, the longest since 1992 for the beleaguered franchise. But three of the five wins before Monday night had come against sub-.500 teams, two of which were also missing a key player.

Dallas is comfortably over .500, despite its dismal start to the 2011-12 season, and would have been in position to face the Clips in a 4-5 first-round matchup had they beat them Monday night. So this one meant something.

Randy Foye, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin would have none of that, with Foye connecting on a franchise-record-tying eight 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 28 points. Paul played through an injured elbow to accumulate double-digit assists for the fifth time in the six-game win streak, and Griffin shot an efficient 7-of-11 from the field and added 16 rebounds.

Defensively, it's hard to tell how well the Clippers played because Dallas shot so horribly, but it's clear that L.A. played at least serviceable defense. Their rotations have been better of late, and there was no reason to think they took a step back in that category Monday night.

"Sometimes you just get your a-- kicked that bad," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said in his postgame press conference at the American Airlines Center.

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LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul today was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, March 26, through Sunday, April 1, the NBA announced Monday.

Paul led the Clippers to a perfect 5-0 homestand to end March and a 4-0 mark last week, averaging 21.5 points on 56 percent shooting, while dishing out 11.3 assists per game. He began the week with 25 points and 10 assists, as the Clippers defeated Paul’s former team, the New Orleans Hornets, 97-85 on March 26. Paul, who ranks third in the NBA in assists (8.8), matched his season-high with 15 assists in a 103-86 win over the Phoenix Suns on March 28.

Since losing three games in three days last month, Paul has led the Clippers to their first five-game winning streak since 2006 and on the brink of their first six-game winning streak since 1992. If the Clippers beat Dallas on Tuesday, they will also equal last season's victory total (32) in 29 fewer games.

Paul had 185 total assists in March, establishing a new Clippers franchise record for assists in a calendar month, passing Norm Nixon’s 179 assists for the San Diego Clippers in November 1983.

Clippers (31-21) vs. Dallas Mavericks (30-23) at American Airlines Arena, 5:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Historic streak: After losing three games in three days last month, the Clippers have put together one of the franchise's best winning streaks since moving to Los Angeles in 1984. The Clippers won their fifth straight game last Saturday against the Utah Jazz, giving them their first five-game winnings streak since Nov. 2- Nov.12, 2006. If the Clippers can beat Dallas on Monday, it would give the Clippers their first six-game winning streak since March 18 – March 31, 1992. The longest winning streak in franchise history is 11 games from Nov. 3 – Nov. 23, 1974 when the Clippers were the Buffalo Braves. Since relocating to Los Angeles, the Clippers have had just three winning streaks of six-games or longer. If the Clippers beat Dallas they will also equal last season's victory total (32) in 29 fewer games.

2. Moving on up: The Clippers are now 10 games over .500 (31-21) following their win over the Jazz on Saturday. It's only the third time that the Clippers have been more than five games over .500 this many games into a season since moving to Los Angeles. They finished the season eight games over .500 in 1991-92 and 12 games over .500 in 2005-06. Those are the only two seasons in which the Clippers finished over .500 since moving to L.A. The Clippers recent 5-0 homestand helped them move up to fourth in the Western Conference and within a game and half of the Lakers. It was just the third time in franchise history that the Clippers had gone undefeated in a homestand of five games or more.

3. Surviving March: The Clippers survived a brutal stretch of playing 20 games in 31 days in March with an 11-9 record. The Clippers are the first team in 45 years since the Cincinnati Royals in Feb. 1967 to play 20 or more games in a single month. The Clippers salvaged their record in the month with a 5-0 homestand and the inspired play of Chris Paul, who had 26 points and six assists on Saturday against Utah. Paul had 185 total assists in March, establishing a new Clippers franchise record for assists in a calendar month, passing Norm Nixon’s 179 assists for the San Diego Clippers in November 1983.

4. Playoff push: After playing five games in ten days at home, the Clippers will now finish the season by playing nine of their last 14 games on the road starting in Dallas on Monday. The Clippers have improved on defense since their three game losing streak but their ability to score more easily after not reaching 100 points in nine straight games has been just as big a factor in their turnaround. This season, the Clippers are 19-3 when scoring over 100 points and 12-18 when scoring under the century mark. Hitting the 100 point mark on the road has become even more important for the Clippers who are 9-1 when scoring over 100 points but just 2-12 when scoring under 100 points.

5. Close call: The Clippers have played in 20 games this season that have been decided by 5 points or less. After a tough stretch of blowing such games after Chauncey Billups was lost for the season the Clippers are now 11-9 in games decided by 5 points or less. The Clippers nine losses by five points or less is the fourth highest total in the NBA this season. Paul has been a huge factor in the Clippers’ ability to close out games. Paul is one of the league leaders in fourth-quarter scoring, averaging 5.8 points in the final period, fourth-most in the NBA.