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Western Conference first round: Game 5 (Clippers lead 3-1)
Clippers vs. Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum, 6:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Closing time: With their next win in this series, the Clippers will accomplish something that has only happened to the franchise one other time since moving to California in 1978 and only twice in franchise history -- win a playoff series. The last time the Clippers won a playoff series was six years ago when they beat the Denver Nuggets in the first round in five games. With a 3-1 series lead, the Clippers could close out their first round series with Memphis in five games Wednesday night. Unlike Lakers center Andrew Bynum, however, Chris Paul knows the fourth win will not come easy. "The close-out game is the toughest one,” said Paul, who has only advanced past the first round once in his career. Only eight teams in NBA playoffs history have come back from a 31 series deficit to win a sevengame series but expect Game 5 to be close. Despite being down 31 in the series, the Grizzlies actually lead the overall scoreboard 386385.

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PLAYA VISTA -- Caron Butler only scored four points in 23 minutes in his return to the court Saturday, but no matter.

That's not why he came back so early from a fractured left hand suffered in last week's Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies. He came back five days after breaking his hand so he could simply play a part in the Los Angeles Clippers' playoff run -- something he didn't get to do last season with the Dallas Mavericks.

So while he wasn't an offensive threat in Game 3, it was his defense on Memphis' Rudy Gay that the Clippers and coach Vinny Del Negro desired.

"The role that I’m playing right now, what I’m doing, I can play with no hands," Butler said after a brief Clippers practice on Sunday. "It’s not a big deal.

"I can play."

He can play, but he also can't play without significant pain. Butler admitted that the hand was bothering him Saturday -- "I felt it pretty much all night," he said -- but never extreme enough to force him out of the game.

The decision to let him play was made after a specialist told him the injury wouldn't get any worse if he suited up. So he got outfitted with a brace for the non-shooting hand, did some shooting the day before the game at the Clippers' practice facility and worked out again before the game.

"It’s not going to get any more broke," Butler said Sunday. I pretty much took it in stride ... it felt comfortable enough to be somewhat effective out there."

The 32-year-old Butler, nicknamed "Tuff Juice" years ago in Washington for his quick recovery from injuries, took seven shots and made two Saturday. He also recorded a steal, a block and three rebounds in the 22 minutes he logged, guarding Gay most of the time.

He is expected to start Monday's Game 4 against the Grizzlies at the Staples Center, which tips off at 7:30 p.m. PT.

Clippers (40-26) vs. Memphis Grizzlies (41-25) at FedEx Forum, 6:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Playoff experience: The Memphis Grizzlies beat the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of last year's playoffs and took the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games; falling one win short of the Western Conference Finals. Meanwhile three of the five Clippers' starters have never played in a playoff game before. “That’s amazing,” Clippers forward Caron Butler said when informed of that number. “Anything can happen in the playoffs. It’s going to be physical and it’s going to be loud.” The only way for the Clippers to get playoffs experience, of course, is to actually play in the playoffs and Butler believes playoff rookies like Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Randy Foye and Eric Bledsoe, will be fine after they first touch the ball. “My first playoff games I wanted to do so many things when I first touched the ball,” Butler said. “I wanted to jab step, I wanted to shoot, I wanted to dunk and lay-up all at once. After that it was OK. You just have to take a deep breath and be patient.”

2. Turning the page: The first thing the Clippers and Grizzlies must do come Sunday night is forget about the regular season and how bad (Clippers) or how well (Grizzlies) finished the season. The Clippers finished the season losing three of their last four games while the Grizzlies come into the postseason winning six straight. Their records down the stretch enabled the Grizzlies to steal homecourt advantage from the Clippers, which was still on the minds of some players before they left for Memphis, knowing they could have easily been staying home for Games 1 and 2. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Clippers forward Kenyon Martin. "We know that…. Win any one of those games and we'd get home court. Games early in the season come back to bite you late in the season."

3. Foul mood: The Clippers and Blake Griffin have complained about the hard fouls Griffin has been taking this season and Griffin anticipates it only getting worse in the playoffs as he prepares to face Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Marreese Speights. “I heard it gets a lot more physical,” Griffin said. “We’ll see. I have to keep an open mind and get a feel for the first game… If it gets any more [physical] I might not make it. I know it’s going to be physical but I can’t imagine it getting a whole lot more physical than it’s been but I’m ready for that.” Butler said the playoffs will be more physical for everyone and every player has to prepare for the increased intensity. “We just have to be prepared for the challenge,” Butler said. “We have to protect ourselves, be padded up and be ready to go.”

4. Getting defensive: The first thing teams have to be prepared for when they face the Grizzlies is their suffocating defense and ability to essentially take a sledge hammer to your offensive plans. The Grizzlies topped the NBA in steals (9.6) and forced turnovers (17.1) after leading each category last season, becoming the first team to lead the league in both steals per game and forced turnovers per game for consecutive seasons since the 1995-96 and 1996-97 Seattle SuperSonics. “They try to muck everything up,” Clippers guard Randy Foye said. “They try to make everything chaotic. They try to pressure you and make you do things you don’t want to do. They want to make every possession a dog fight. They want to grind everything out and make you take the shot that they want you to take not the shot you want to take.”

5. Turning point: Last month the Clippers were left for dead after they lost three games in three days but they reeled six straight wins and won 13 of 15 games after blowing out the Grizzlies at home, 101-85, on March 24. The win salvaged the Clippers season and probably saved Vinny Del Negro his job. The Clippers win at home also underscored how important homecouurt could be in this series. The Clippers won their first two games against Memphis at home and lost their most recent match-up on the road. While the Grizzlies have won 10 straight at home and haven’t lost a game at the FedEx Forum in over a month, the Clippers have lost their last three games on the road and finished the season with a below .500 record away from home.

PLAYA VISTA -- Here are video interviews with coach Vinny Del Negro and a number of the Los Angeles Clippers following their practice Friday in preparation for their first-round NBA playoffs matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Del Negro appeared as confident as ever and joked with reporters before and after his meeting with the media. He also indicated that rest and time between games isn't as important in the playoffs as it is in the regular season.



Guard Chris Paul provided an update on his status for Sunday's series opener, since he did not practice on Friday. He also talked about the process of preparing for a playoff series and what being in one means for the city of L.A.



Guard Mo Williams talked about the entirely different dynamic evident in playoff games as compared to the regular season, and he said most of it is based on attention to detail.



Forward Caron Butler emphasized how excited he was to take part in the 2012 NBA playoffs after sitting out throughout the Dallas Mavericks' playoff run a season ago. And he had interesting things to say about how NBA teams and players paid special attention to staying healthy this year.



Guard Randy Foye said film study is key this time of year. The Clippers, Foye said, have to know everything there is to know about Memphis by the time Sunday's Game 1 comes around.

1. This simply hasn't happened very often. It is the Clippers' fifth playoff appearance since 1976 and first since 2006. When things that don't happen do happen, celebration and excitement typically are in order. This is one of those situations.

2. Chris Paul. The Clippers' new point guard and fearless leader has proved time and again -- with this team and in previous years -- to be an ideal closer, perfect for playoff situations. He's arguably been the best closer of any star in the league this season, and fans in L.A. are well aware of it.

3. The Clippers beat Memphis, their first-round opponent, in two of three meetings this season, including a 16-point smashing in L.A. in March that was one of the team's best performances. The Clippers may not have home-court advantage, but they might at least have the matchup advantage -- albeit by a small amount.

4. Plus, San Antonio -- the Clips’ likely opponent if they get by Memphis –- isn’t a terrible team for them to face either. The squads have met three times this season: The Spurs won the first game, way back in December, by 25. But the Clippers won the third (with Tony Parker hurt) and they took San Antonio to overtime in the in-between game. It'd be unlikely that L.A. could pull off the upset, but not impossible.

5. Three key supporting-cast Clippers have 25 or more playoff starts under their belts in Kenyon Martin, Mo Williams and Caron Butler. Sure, that is in contrast to the lack of postseason experience of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Randy Foye. But the 25-plus starts are also more than any single Memphis player can boast, so the Clippers will not be out-experienced in the first round.

6. Memphis gets its points from a variety of sources – Rudy Gay was the only Grizzlies player to average 15 or more points this season. You can’t really say that about the two-headed tandem of the Clippers, especially of late, but, in looking back at the three L.A.-Memphis matchups this year, the Clippers did a good job of spreading around the scoring. Seven current Clippers have averaged at least eight points against the Grizz this year.

7. Expectations are not all that high. If the Clippers make the second round and lose, there probably won’t be too many cries of disappointment. The refrain would be that they needed some time to get used to each other and were hurt by their new additions and injuries. They may just play loose, with a sense of nothing to lose.

8. The fact that the Clippers have to start out on the road is going to give many fans serious misgivings, and rightfully so. But at least realize this about the team's away-from-home struggles this season: They were a little bit alleviated as the year went on. It took the Clips more than a month to record a road win over a playoff-caliber team, but they started to do it more and more in March and April. You could argue that the Clippers' biggest problem won't be stealing one on the road but actually sealing down all three at home.

9. Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies forward serves as a reminder of how far this franchise has come in the last three years. Since the Clippers won the lottery 35 months ago and earned the right to select Griffin, so many things have changed. Among those changes was the status of Randolph, whom the Clippers dealt to Memphis a week after the draft. He went from being acquired by the team to being the team's leading scorer to being traded away in a matter of a half-year.

10. Remember the last time the Clippers made the playoffs, after the 2005-2006 season? It was actually a pretty good run back then. They beat the Nuggets in five games despite being on the short end of a 3-6 matchup, then gave the 2-seed Phoenix Suns a great run for their money in the Western Conference semifinals. A thing or two done differently in Game 5 that year and the Clippers might have been going against the Dallas Mavericks in the conference finals for the right to face the Miami Heat. So, strange as it seems, history might actually be something the Clippers can lean on this time around.

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Clippers forward Caron Butler suffered a left hip contusion in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Hornets and will not return.

After a missed lay-up, Butler fell hard into the bed of cameras positioned on the baseline with 3:16 left in the first quarter. He got up gingerly before heading to the locker room and did not return. Butler will be reevaluated on Monday and is currently listed as day-to-day.

The Clippers will play the majority of Sunday’s game against the Hornets with only nine healthy players. Nick Young did not dress Sunday with flu-like symptoms and Travis Leslie, who was called up Sunday from the NBA Development League, was inactive.

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.

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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Clippers (26-20) vs. New Orleans Hornets (11-35) at New Orleans Arena, 5 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Coming home: When Chris Paul was traded from the Hornets to the Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and a first-round draft pick more than three months ago, the first game Paul circled on the schedule was his first trip back to New Orleans. It will be an emotional night for Paul, who is hosting 150 kids and parents from his CP3 Afterschool Zone at the game, and will be seeing many of his old teammates and friends for the first time since being traded. At his introductory news conference in Los Angeles, he mentioned his former teammates and the children from the program before talking about his new team. “Going to New Orleans is going to be tough,” Paul said. “It will be cool because I have a lot of family and friends there but it will be a little odd. I had to do it at some point.”

2. Scoring slump: For the eighth straight game, the Clippers failed to score 100 points. For the second straight game, they allowed a team to score more than 100 points. In other words, this is a team that can’t score and can’t defend right now, which is never a good combination. The Clippers have hit the century mark twice in their last 13 games, and their record in their last 18 games is 7-11. This season, the Clippers are 16-3 when scoring more than 100 points and 10-16 when scoring less than 100. Reaching the century mark on the road is even more critical for the Clippers, as they are 9-1 when they score at least 100 and 2-10 when they don’t.

3. Know your role: The Clippers’ inability to develop a consistent rotation was again on display against the Thunder. Randy Foye, who had been the Clippers' starting shooting guard for 28 games after Chauncey Billups was lost for the season last month, was benched in favor of newly acquired swingman Nick Young against Indiana. Foye was the only player on the Clippers' active roster who did not play in the game. Well, 24 hours later, he was back in the starting lineup and scored 23 points in 35 minutes. Judging by the Clippers’ recent rotation inconsistencies, it’s entirely possible he might not see the floor against New Orleans on Thursday night.

4. Butler out: Foye started against Oklahoma City because Caron Butler was a healthy scratch for the game, but he'll likely be back in the starting lineup against the Hornets. Sitting Butler might not just have been for his health during the team's last back-to-back-to-back of the season. He has been in a slump after being one of the key players for the Clippers at the start of the season. Through the first 25 games of the season, the Clippers were 17-8 and Butler was averaging 15.3 points while shooting 44 percent from the field and 38.6 percent from three-point range. In his last 18 games, however, the Clippers are 8-10 and Butler is averaging 8.1 points, and shooting 31.1 percent from the field and 26.3 percent from behind the arc.

5. Bench problems: One of the biggest weaknesses for the Clippers this season, despite their acquisitions of Young and Kenyon Martin, has been their bench. After being outscored 50-23 in Indiana, they were outscored 37-24 in Oklahoma City. The only player on the bench who scored more than four points in either game was Mo Williams, who averaged 11.5 points in both. Williams is averaging 13.8 points and 2.0 assists this season and has accounted for more than 51 percent of the Clippers’ bench production. Martin and Reggie Evans are usually good for a couple of put-backs and Eric Bledsoe usually provides one fast-break layup, but there has been no consistent production from the Clippers’ bench outside of Williams this season.

There have been six mainstays in the Los Angeles Clippers rotation since the 2011-2012 season started on Christmas Day: Chris Paul, Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Caron Butler, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan.

Those six started the season with the team and continue playing in most every game. Then there are the five players the team has added into the mix since then, either by trade, free-agent signing or return from injury. In order, those are Reggie Evans, Kenyon Martin, Eric Bledsoe, Bobby Simmons and, after making his debut in Sunday's win over the Detroit Pistons, now Nick Young.

And that doesn't count mid-year additions Solomon Jones and Courtney Fortson, who both played significant minutes with the Clips before getting released and landing elsewhere.

That's a lot of new pieces to add to a puzzle, especially considering they've all joined the team over an 84-day period in which the Clippers have played 44 games. And, to make matters worse, they've all been separate additions, joining the team weeks apart from each other.

How have the Clippers done it?

"It's not easy," coach Vinny Del Negro said before Sunday's game when asked that question. "We have to do a better job incorporating and getting a feel for guys, and that's tough. But that's the situation we're in.

"You've just gotta work together a little bit better and connect a little bit more as a team, because we're incorporating all types of players and personalities and you have to manage all that."

Blake Griffin put it a little more simply.

"It feels like we add a new piece every month or so," Griffin said after Sunday's game. "It's like every month you're forced to add someone new. I don't want to say it disrupts things, but it changes things.

"We're not used to playing with a guy like Nick. He's been in L.A. for two days now, I think."

Young definitely changed the shape of Sunday's game. Because he logged 29 minutes in the victory, Williams played only 24 -- the shortest time he's been on the court in almost a month. And Bledsoe, who had played in each of the Clippers' last 15 games, didn't play at all.

That was similar to what happened when the Clippers added Simmons at the end of February. Ryan Gomes has only played three minutes since Simmons was signed.

Evans also experienced a slight downturn in minutes right after Martin made his debut in early February.

Del Negro said Sunday he tries to focus on the "rhythm of certain lineups," and that makes sense. But there obviously wasn't going to be much rhythm with Young and the rest of the players on the floor during his 29 minutes against the Pistons.

But, as Griffin said, the Clippers can help ease the transitioning process if they turn up the energy, like they did in the fourth quarter and overtime period Sunday, when they outscored Detroit 30-18. Young was on the floor for 16 of 17 possible minutes in that stretch.

Said Griffin: "The thing is, if we play hard, we can kind of erase or make up for those mistakes that we make because we're new."

LOS ANGELES -- Randy Foye said he didn't want to talk too much about what was discussed in Thursday's players-only meeting following the Clippers' loss to the Phoenix Suns.

But, speaking after Saturday's come-from-behind win over the Houston Rockets, he did reveal one telling topic of conversation from the extended meeting, adding context to something Vinny Del Negro touched on that night in his postgame news conference.

In short, Foye said, the Clippers "have to hold ourselves accountable for our actions on the court."

By that, he mainly means in terms of the officiating. Keep complaining to the officials, he said, and you have to accept the fact that they're possibly going to pay you back for it.

"If you just play, you'll get more calls," said Foye, one of the Clippers' leaders this year, along with Ryan Gomes, Chris Paul and Caron Butler. "If you don't complain, you'll get more calls."

Many would say Blake Griffin could benefit from hearing that. And perhaps he did -- the star forward noticeably complained only one time during Saturday's win over the Rockets, putting both hands on his head in the second half after being called for a defensive foul in what has become his signature move this season.

Foye said one of the reasons the Clippers were able to win Saturday's game was that they didn't let calls get to them as frequently as they have other times this season.

"Tonight, we could have complained about certain things, but we let that go," Foye said. "In the past, we've complained too much, but tonight we did a better job."

Clippers (24-18) vs. Houston Rockets (24-20) at Staples Center, 12:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Freefalling: The Clippers’ fall from grace continues as the team has lost 9 of their last 14 games and is 9-11 since Chauncey Billups was lost for the season last month. They usually find themselves tied or in the lead in the fourth quarter before losing late as was the case Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns where they were up 12 points in the fourth quarter before losing 91-87. The Clippers are now 8-9 in games decided by five points or less and haven’t won back-to-back games in over a month. One of the few wins the Clippers did pull out late recently was against the Houston Rockets on March 4, where they won 105-103 on the road before losing back-to-back games to Minnesota and New Jersey.

2. Billups back: After returning home to Denver for surgery on his ruptured Achilles heel, Billups will return to Staples Center for the first time since Feb. 2 to be with the Clippers. He will continue his rehabilitation with the team and plans to be with the Clippers through the rest of the season. His presence could not have come at a better time. After the Clippers blew a 17-point lead to a Suns team playing without Steve Nash and Grant Hill, the Clippers met for over an hour after the game in the locker room about the direction of the team and the lack of urgency. The Clippers, who were one of the top five teams in the NBA before Billups' injury, will now look to the veteran point guard for leadership in the locker room and on the bench.

3. Welcome Young: Just before the end of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, the Clippers made a deal to acquire Nick Young from Washington for a future second round pick and Brian Cook. Young will be at Staples Center for Saturday’s game against Houston but it is unknown if he will play. The plan is for Young to eventually start alongside Chris Paul in the backcourt and give the Clippers a 6-foot-7 scorer on the wing. The move would push Randy Foye, who had been starting in place of Billups, to the bench. The move will strengthen what had been a weak unit offensively outside of Mo Williams. Young might not help the Clippers’ porous defense but he is capable of hitting open three-pointers and at least making life more difficult for the bigger guards the Clippers couldn't match up with. Young is averaging 16.6 points per game this season in 32 starts.

4. Jordan’s decline: DeAndre Jordan finally played more than a couple seconds in the fourth quarter on Thursday for the first time since March 4. The results, however, didn’t change the outcome of the game as the Clippers shot 21.4 percent in the final period and 50 percent from the free-throw line and blew 12-point lead in the process. March has been a difficult month for Jordan who is only averaging 4.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game. Thursday’s game against the Suns, however, was his best game since Feb. 28 as he finished with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocked shots and played close to 8 minutes in the final period.

5. Butler’s rise: After a month-long scoring slump, Caron Butler has been shooting the ball better in the last two games. Butler has averaged 13.5 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds while shooting 50 percent (11-of-22) from the field and 75 percent (3-of-4) from long-range over the last two games. The Clippers need to get Butler going because when he scores over 13 points they are 16-8. The problem for Butler this season has been consistency. Against Minnesota on March 5, Butler failed to score for the first time in six years and went 0-of-6 from the field. One week later against the Golden State Warriors on March 12 he only scored 1 point and was again 0-of-6 from the field.

Clippers (23-15) vs. Golden State Warriors (16-21) at Staples Center, 6:30 p.m. PT

Five storylines to track:

1. Back-to-back: Perhaps no stat better indicates the Clippers' struggles and inconsistent play as of late than the fact they have not won back-to-back games since Feb. 16. After beating Washington and Portland, the Clippers lost six of their next nine games, including a 104-97 loss to Golden State. After their best offensive performance of the season in a 120-108 win over the San Antonio Spurs, the Clippers’ first win in San Antonio since 2002, the Clippers think they have turned the tide. The Clippers have also lost two of their last three at home. A win against Golden State would not only give them back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly a month but would help set the tone for their six games in eight days at home.

2. Waters of March: The Clippers’ best offensive performance and perhaps their biggest win of the season couldn’t have come at a better time. They salvaged a 3-3 road trip, stayed in first place in the Pacific Division by percentage points and will now try to navigate through the rest of the rough waters in March, where the Clippers play 20 games in 31 days. The Clippers are the first team in 45 years since the Cincinnati Royals in February 1967 to play at least 20 games in a month. The Clippers are 3-3 so far this month, with 11 of their next 14 games coming at home.

3. CP3 steps up: Chris Paul had his best game as a Clipper against the Spurs, posting 36 points and 11 assists in the win. Paul became only the third visiting NBA player to score more than 35 points and hand out more than 10 assists in a game at San Antonio. The only two other players to do so were Paul Westphal in March 1979 (43 points and 11 assists for the Suns) and Isiah Thomas in February 1983 (46 points and 11 assists in an overtime game for the Pistons). Paul is the only player in Clippers history to record a game with at least 35 points, 10 assists and 4 steals. Since the 2000-01 season, Paul is one of just seven players to have at least 36 points, 11 assists, 4 steals and 4 rebounds in a game. The last player to do it was Warriors guard Monta Ellis, who will play Paul on Sunday.

4. Butler’s in: Probably the biggest X-factor for the Clippers this season is Caron Butler. The 10-year forward has struggled over the last 10 games but may have finally worked his way out of his scoring slump in the Clippers’ win at San Antonio. Butler scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and added 3 assists. When Butler scores 13 or more points the Clippers are 15-7. Before the Spurs game, Butler failed to score a single point in the Clippers’ loss to Minnesota on March 5. It was the first time in six years that Butler had not scored in a game.

5. Mo-mentum off the bench: Clippers guard Mo Williams continues to make his case for Sixth Man of the Year honors. Against the Spurs, he exploded for a season-high 33 points, going 12-of-19 from the field, and equaling a career-high by going 7-of-9 from beyond the arc. It was the first time since April 8, 2010, that he had scored over 30 points in a game. It was just the 14th time in Clippers history that a player has come off the bench to score at least 30 points and only the ninth time this season that a player has come off the bench in an NBA game to score at least 33 points.

SAN ANTONIO -- As Mo Williams scarfed down chicken fingers after the Clippers' 120-108 win over the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center, he explained how the touch of the ball in his hands early in a game helps him shoot the ball late. There's an acclimation process for a shooter that enables him to hit 7-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc en route to a season-high 33 points, particularly in a half-court offense that favors improvisation.

“The most difficult thing to do in this game is to call things on the fly,” Williams said. “It was nothing that came from the sidelines. It was just basically, ‘I just hit a 3, okay, let's get you another 3. That's what we're going to do.’ It was kind of like an eye contact.”

In many respects, Williams is the Clippers' totem. There isn't so much a reason as a rhythm to his game. He doesn't offer the Clippers much on the defensive side of the ball, and his role on the team is more fuzzy than defined. But give him enough space on the offensive end of the floor and he'll occasionally win you a basketball game.

The victory was a milestone for the organization -- the Clippers' first in San Antonio since Jan. 31, 2002, when Michael Olowokandi went for 20 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots -- but like many others it was a triumph of anarchy over order. “Only two of the nine plays that ended in 3-pointers were set plays for us,” Williams said -- a fact Chris Paul independently confirmed on the other side of the locker room as the Clippers prepared to pack up and return home to Los Angeles after a 3-3 road trip.

Should the Clippers take comfort in their ability to manufacture points out of chaos? That apart from an occasional flare screen from Blake Griffin along the perimeter or a pick from Reggie Evans at the top of the floor, most of the combined 69 points from Williams and Paul on Friday were the product of bedlam?

“Identity” is one of those buzz words you hear repeatedly out of the mouths of NBA coaches and players, but you rarely hear it from Vinny Del Negro or any member of the Clippers' core. The Clippers battle, fight and work, but try to define who they are as a basketball team and you're at a loss for words.

That's not necessarily a problem, especially if you believe that a team's character and distinctiveness reveal themselves over time. There's a lot working in the Clippers' favor as they return home for a six-game homestand. They're currently ranked third in the Western Conference standings and have beaten each of the other seven teams who'd qualify for the playoffs if the postseason began today.

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