Clippers keep rolling with impressive win over Spurs

Now is not the time for the Clippers to ease their way to the finish line of the regular season and into the playoffs because so much remains at stake for this group.

They are playing for the home-court advantage in the Western Conference. They are playing for sustained consistency.

They are playing to show they can still be a force in NBA.

So against one of the NBA’s best teams, the Clippers played some of their best sustained basketball, pulling out a 98-87 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night at the AT&T Center.

L.A. now has won five consecutive games and is guaranteed at least the fifth seed in the West.

The Clippers do know for sure that the Utah Jazz will be their opponent in the first-round of the playoffs.

All that is left to decide is which team will have the home-court advantage in the seven-game series.

The Clippers have two regular-season games left, Monday at Staples Center against the Houston Rockets and Wednesday at home against the Sacramento Kings.

“Whether we had won or not tonight, I like how we’re playing,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “I like how we’re growing. I did like this game in particular tonight because I thought both teams wanted to win the game.

“It’s nice down the stretch. That sounds like a silly statement, but down the stretch of the season you get some quirky games and tonight it was a good competition. And I thought that was good for our team being on the road.”

The Clippers had six players score in double figures.

Chris Paul led the way with 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Blake Griffin, who shot just seven-for-19 from the field, grinded his way to 18 points and eight rebounds.

DeAndre Jordan took care of the boards again, collecting 17 rebounds to go along with 17 points.

Jamal Crawford provided a spark off the bench with 12 points, J.J. Redick had 11 and Luc Mbah a Moute had 10.

“I think we’re playing better basketball,” Griffin said. “I mean, the wins are great but I think our style of play, our rhythm, our pace, both offensively and defensively. I mean, defensively we were pretty good tonight as far as leading guys to take the shots we wanted them to take, you know. Being in our rotations, keeping the paint tight. It was a good showing.”

The Clippers have defeated the Spurs, who were led by Kawhi Leonard’s 28 points and LaMarcus Aldridge’s 18, twice in San Antonio and won the four-game season series, 3-1.

“We’ve played them well this year,” Redick said. “Even the game we lost where we had a lead for a large portion of the game, so I’m not surprised that we played well against them.

“I thought the thing we did well tonight was just sort of sustain their run and weathered the storm a little bit when they cut it down to two or three and we just came back at them.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter @BA_Turner