Chris Paul, sensational and selfless, credits Clippers defense

There was a lot of talk about Chris Paul following his performance in the Clippers’ 117-107 victory at Sacramento on Friday night. For good reason.

He was banged up coming in — forearm bruise, tight calf — and he got poked in the eye in the second quarter. Yet he scored 40 points, doled out 13 assists and grabbed eight rebounds in 36 marvelous, tuover-free minutes.

Paul was quick to point out it was the third-quarter defense that propelled his team to victory. The Clippers trailed 67-64 at halftime, then outscored the Kings 34-16 in the third, during which the Clippers (38-20) went on a 20-0 run.

“It was defense,” said Paul, whose team hosts the Brooklyn Nets at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Staples Center. “It was straight defense. Me and DJ (DeAndre Jordan) talked about it at halftime. We had to set the tone, so I tried to start picking up DC (Darren Collison) earlier, not just letting him be in a rocking chair, picking us apart. I think they started feeling us a little bit more in the third quarter and that sort of fed our offense.”

Rebounding from bad loss

The Clippers were coming off Wednesday’s unlikely 87-81 loss to the Denver Nuggets, who will not be making the playoffs. Even though Sacramento (24-33) is going to be hard-pressed to make the postseason, Clippers coach Doc Rivers liked the way his team responded.

“Yeah, I don’t think they like to lose,” Rivers said of his players. “I don’t think it’s harder than that. It’s nothing that I’m doing. This is a very competitive group. They like each other. They play together.

“They don’t like losing and they certainly didn’t like losing the game the other night and we felt like at half time we were playing the same way. It was really up to them. It was no coaching adjustment, I can tell you that.”

Karl praises Clippers

The Clippers average 105 points, which is seventh-best in the league. Kings coach George Karl believes the Clippers are better than that.

“Offensively, they’re in the top two or three best offensive teams I’ve seen in the NBA,” he said. “I think Golden State is one, maybe the team on Monday night (Oklahoma City) might be two and Clippers might be three.

“We did some good things, they just got a point guard (Paul) that had control of the game and conceptually we switched some and the switch didn’t work.”

This and that

Recently acquired Jeff Green played his fourth game for the Clippers since coming over from Memphis for Lance Stephenson and a future draft pick. Green scored 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. He started in place of Paul Pierce, who missed the game for personal reasons. ... Brooklyn took a record of 16-42 — second-worst in the East — into its game Saturday at Utah. The Nets defeated the woeful Phoenix Suns 116-106 on Thursday.

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