Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 110-84 victory over Memphis

The Clippers’ roll toward the playoffs continued Tuesday night at Staples Center with a 110-84 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in their final home game of the regular season. Here are five takeaways from the game:

1. It’s still unknown whom the Clippers will play in the first round of the playoffs. They eliminated the Grizzlies as a possibility but could play Portland or Dallas depending on how the final day of the regular season unfolds. If the Trail Blazers beat the lottery-bound Denver Nuggets at the Moda Center, they’ll play the Clippers in the first round regardless of whether the Mavericks beat the San Antonio Spurs. Dallas needs a win and a Portland loss to move into the No. 5 spot and spur at least a week’s worth of Mark Cuban quips about DeAndre Jordan, who backed out of a commitment to the Mavericks last summer in free agency.

2. The Clippers’ improved defense has helped win six consecutive games and 10 of their last 11. They have held nine of 10 opponents in those victories to less than 100 points. “You can see how focused we have been,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “We are starting to take away individual strengths. If a guy goes right, you can see everybody is low enough to the right arm. Our talk is better. I love the way we’re playing defense right now.”

3. Blake Griffin is looking increasingly playoff-ready. He built off a strong second half against Dallas on Sunday with a banked-in jumper and some nice passing on the way to 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes. He’s not exactly at peak form but he’s getting closer to the player everyone remembers. “I wish I had three or four more games [before the playoffs], but that’s not the way it works,” Griffin said. “The playoffs is a little bit different because there is so much attention to detail. There is always a day between games with no back to backs, so that will be great as far as being able to get some rest and recover a little bit.”

4. Golden State’s Stephen Curry will almost surely win the NBA’s most valuable player award, but Chris Paul deserves more than an honorable mention. He carried the Clippers during Griffin’s 45-game absence and helped the Clippers secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. “We would not be talking about playoffs” without Paul, Rivers said. “You take away [Kevin] Durant [from the Oklahoma City Thunder], they do not make the playoffs last year. You take away the key guy, the tandem on most teams, they struggle. Chris had the pick of every part of the game and he did it. Leadership — there is no better leader in the league. I thought he did all those things. He does far more intangibles as well as just the play. I think it is huge for us.”

5. It will be another skeleton crew for the Clippers in Phoenix. Griffin, Paul, DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford will not make the trip, leaving the Clippers with another unit of mostly reserves to take on the Suns in their final regular season game. That arrangement has actually worked out well for the Clippers the last two times they’ve tried it. They extended Oklahoma City to the final seconds of a taut game last month and beat Utah with only nine players last week.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch