a l- riffin pair powers Clippers past Wizards

LOS ANGELES – Chris Paul had 22 points and 11 assists, Blake Griffin added 17 points and 11 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Clippers hung on to beat the pesky Washington Wizards, 9487, on Saturday night.

Coming off a sweep of their threegame road trip through Memphis, Houston and Minnesota, the Clippers improved their home record to 19-4. The win was their fourth in a row since the 104-101 loss to Orlando on Jan. 12 that ended their franchise-record, 13-game home winning streak.

The Clippers won despite shooting a season-low 36.6 percent from the field. Paul, the NBA player of the month for December, returned to the lineup after missing three games because of a bruised right kneecap and scored seven points in the final 3:14.

In other results, Sacramento edged Charlotte, 97-93; San Antonio outlasted Atlanta, 98-93; Memphis wore down Chicago, 85-82; Golden State held off New Orleans, 116-112; Minnesota routed Houston, 92-79; Utah thumped Cleveland, 109-98; and Milwaukee subdued Portland, 110-104.

The surging Clips have won an astonishing 24 of their last 27 overall and are within a half-game of idle Oklahoma City for the NBA’s best record, a full game ahead of San Antonio. The top teams in the Western Conference will go head-tohead on Tuesday night at Los Angeles in a rematch of their overtime battle on Nov. 21, when the Thunder beat the Clippers, 117-111, in Griffin’s hometown.

The Clippers reached the midway mark of their spectacular season and continued to tantalize their longsuffering fans with hopes of an NBA Finals appearance in June. The farthest the franchise has gotten in its 43-year history was the conference semifinals, in 2006 and again last season.

John Wall scored 24 points off the bench for the Wizards, whose leagueworst record dropped to 8-30 even though they had won four of their previous five games.

Wall, whose block of Ty Lawson’s potential game-tying layup in the final seconds helped the Wizards escape Denver with a 112-108 victory on Friday night and snap an eight-game road losing streak, shot 7 for 16 and had six assists in his fifth game of the season.

The NBA’s top overall draft pick in 2010 returned to action on Jan. 12 after missing the team’s first 33 games with a stress injury to his left kneecap.