Five takeaways from the Clippers’ win over the Denver Nuggets, 110-103

The Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets, 110-103, on Monday night at Staples Center as they clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Here are five takeaways from the Clippers’ win:

1) The Clippers were sort of floundering in the fourth quarter before they got things in gear.

And when they finally did, Chris Paul made sure the Clippers closed the door on the Denver Nuggets.

Paul scored nine points of the Clippers’ final 12 points in the fourth quarter to put the Nuggets away.

He finished with 17 points on six-for-11 shooting, nine assists, seven rebounds and just one turnover in 37 minutes.

2) Jamal Crawford still is trying to shake off the rust after missing 17 games with a right calf injury.

Crawford played in just his third game Monday night since the injury sidelined him, his rhythm still off.

He was just one-for-six from the field and scored just three points.

But that didn’t stop Crawford from taking a big shot when the Clippers needed him.

With the Clippers down 96-93, Crawford scored while being fouled with 3:02 left. He made the free throw for a three-point play.

In his first two games back, Crawford was five-for-18 from the field, two-for-nine from three-point range for 15 points.

He has one regular-season game left Tuesday night at Phoenix to get his rhythm back before the playoffs start this weekend.

3) When the Nuggets went to the Hack-A-DJ in the third quarter, DeAndre Jordan went just one-for-four from the free-throw line.

After the Clippers took Jordan out of the game and put in Glen Davis, the Nuggets went to the Hack-A-Davis.

Davis made all four of his free throws.

When Jordan made two of four free throws in the fourth after he was intentionally fouled, Denver interim Coach Melvin Hunt looked at Clippers Coach Doc Rivers and smiled.

Jordan was four-for-10 from the free-throw line for the game.

4) The Clippers were in position to win the game because they took better care of the basketball in the second half.

They had 10 turnovers in the first half, just five more in the final 24 minutes.

They had four of the second-half turnovers early in the fourth quarter before settling down.

5) The Clippers didn’t really figure on getting out-rebounded by the short-handed Nuggets Monday night, but they did.

The Nuggets had 58 rebounds to the Clippers’ 47.

The Clippers gave up 25 offensive rebounds, which allowed the Nuggets to stay in the game.

Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter @BA_Turner