Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 96-94 victory over the Trail Blazers

The Clippers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 96-94, on Thursday night when J.J. Redick made a last-second shot on an inbounds play.

Here are five takeaways from the game:

1) The play the Clippers used for the game-winning shot is one they have run frequently this season –- and it worked again.

The score was tied with 1.1 seconds left and Chris Paul was taking the ball out of bounds.

Portland’s 6-foot-11 center Mason Plumlee was jumping up and down, doing all he could to block Paul’s view.

Meanwhile, DeAndre Jordan was setting a screen for Redick, who faked inside and them came over the top of the screen, moving toward Paul.

Paul threw the ball between Plumlee’s legs to Redick, who made a 21-foot jumper as time expired to give the Clippers the win.

“I was worried Chris was going to kind of throw it like I was going to go over the top,” Redick said. “I probably shouldn’t have worried. Chris doesn’t panic. He made a hell of a pass.”

The 6-foot Paul got a clear view of Redick just in time.

“Plumlee started jumping and I really couldn’t see J.J., and he jumped high enough to where I could bounce-pass it basically between his legs,” Paul said. “D.J. got a clean screen. I just tried to look behind J.J. to see if it was going in.”

2) Throughout the final dramatic moments, Paul was playing with a sore right knee, having bumped knees with Portland guard Brian Roberts after scoring late in the second quarter.

Paul was limping. He was yelling for his teammates to call a timeout, which they did. He was examined by trainer Jasen Powell and returned to the game after the timeout.

After the game, even Paul admitted that his knee “felt serious.” But he finished the game.

Paul had 25 points on eight-for-15 shooting, seven assists, five rebounds and the last inbound pass for the game-winner to Redick.

“We’ve got a great training staff,” Paul said, adding he had time to heal. “We don’t play [Friday].”

3) Jamal Crawford had a big game for the Clippers, actually saving them before Redick had the biggest shot of the game.

Crawford had 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter. His three-pointer with 51.4 seconds left gave the Clippers an 89-88 lead. His three-pointer with 11 seconds left tied the score at 94-94.

Crawford refused to lose on this night.

“We’ve been there before,” Crawford said. “Through the course of the year, you see games like that where it just takes a moment or something small to trigger us and I just had faith, remained faithful. I just knew we would pull it out.”

4) Besides setting screens, Jordan was holding things down on defense and the boards for the Clippers.

He had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, five on the offensive glass.

5) The Clippers just aren’t getting much out of their forward position.

Paul Pierce and Luc Mbah a Moute, who started against the Trail Blazers, were a combined one for eight from the field for two points.

Pierce missed all five of his shots, all three of his three-pointers. Mbah a Moute was one of three from the field.

Jeff Green and Wes Johnson each had four points off the bench, with Green shooting two of seven in 26 minutes. Pierce, Mbah a Moute and Johnson each played less than 15 minutes. Johnson made his only shot of the game and both of his free throws.

Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter: @BA_Turner