Western Conference fourth leading team Los Angeles Clippers crushed the league's second best ballclub of the season San Antonio Spurs, who was without the team's top forward Kawhi Leonard 105-86 at the Staples Center on Thursday night.

Nine-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul had a remarkable scoring night of 28 points with 12 assists to register another double-double game performance for the Clippers, who are currently 18-8 at home this season. Paul, who attended the funeral of Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams' wife Ingrid, played with a game-high 37 minutes.

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"It really put a lot of stuff in perspective," Paul said. "At the end of the day, it is just basketball."

Reserve Jamal Crawford, who was the 2010 NBA Sixth Man of the Year recipient, added 19 points and J.J. Redick had 17 points for the Clippers, who saw their 20-point lead whittled to five in the fourth quarter before they exploded offensively.

Paul Pierce, who played for almost 23 minutes in the game, chipped in 12 points for the winners.

With the win, the Clippers have improved to 36-18, while the Spurs suffered their 9^th loss of the season.

The Clippers dominated the boards, grabbing a team combined 45 rebounds compared to the 33 taken by the Spurs, who snapped their six-game winning streak coming out of the All-Star break.

Spurs' starting forward Kawhi Leonard did not take part in the game and had to sit out because of tightness in his left calf. His 20.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists averages was truly missed by the Gregg Popovich-led squad.

Veteran guard Tony Parker led the Spurs with 14 points and 4 assists with 6-of-13 shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge finished the game with 10 points, shooting at a miserable 3-of-12 from the field and Tim Duncan, who recently returned to action after dealing with an injury, scored only 2 points in 1 of 6 shooting while playing 20.29 minutes in the game.

Tagschris paul, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs