Blake Griffin’s status is uncertain after Clippers star is stricken with another playoff injury

When they entered the locker room at halftime Friday night, all of the Clippers were made aware that Blake Griffin would not be joining them for the rest of Game 3 because the power forward had suffered a bruised right big toe late in the second quarter.

So all they could do was press forward and follow the lead of Chris Paul.

And Paul refused to give in to the tough circumstance of Griffin’s absence, carrying his teammates along with him to a stirring 111-106 Western Conference playoff victory over the Utah Jazz at a stunned Vivint Smart Home Arena.

After the game, after the Clippers had taken a 2-1 lead and recaptured home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series, they turned their attention to Griffin.

The Clippers said X-rays were negative for a broken toe and that Griffin would undergo an MRI test later Friday night. His status for Game 4 on Sunday night here had not been determined.

“He’ll be re-evaluated tonight and we should have more news tomorrow,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “So we don’t know [how he is doing] is the answer.”

Griffin appeared to injure his toe after he scored on a fastbreak layup over Rodney Hood with 3 minutes 53 seconds left in the second quarter and the Clippers down 47-43. Griffin took a big step to get around Hood and appeared to come down hard on his foot, then limped back on defense.

The Clippers called a timeout with 3:18 left in the second quarter to allow Griffin to come to the bench.

Griffin pounded the chair with his hand during the timeout before he walked away with Jasen Powell, the team’s director of medical services/head athletic trainer.

Griffin left after having scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.

“Blake, the winner that he is, he would want us to lie down,” said Jamal Crawford, who had six of his nine points in the fourth quarter. “He would want us to keep going. We told we had him and we were praying for some good news.”

That’s where Paul stepped in big time, scoring 13 of his 34 points in the fourth.

“It wasn’t me. It was us,” Paul said. “And we just stayed the course. At halftime I saw BG (Blake Griffin) back there (in the locker room) and went to check on him. He just told us to go out there and get it done. And that’s what we tried to do.”

But here’s the thing.

Paul had a stretch in the fourth in which he scored nine consecutive points.

“He’s just good, No. 1. He trusts the actions that we’re running, No. 2,” Rivers said about Paul. “And he has an amazing will. He really does. He’s just a tough guy. He’s stubborn in a very positive way. All the great ones have that in them.”’

But with DeAndre Jordan getting 17 points and 13 rebounds and Luc Mbah a Moute getting a playoff career-high 15 points, the Clippers took back control of the series.

“Being what our team has been through, tons of injuries, whether it was my self, whether it was Blake, we’ve always shown an ability to step up,” Paul said. “Next guy step up.”

Utah Jazz small forward Gordon Hayward had a playoff career-high 40 points, George Hill had 26 and Joe Johnson 15.

But the Clippers held the Jazz to 47.1% shooting in the fourth quarter to get the win.

After it was over, the Clippers smiled and ran off the court happy.

“Sometimes you want it so much, like I thought we were getting in our way, all of us,” Rivers said. “I thought in the second half, even though Blake wasn’t there, we just kept playing. We just kept hanging in there. ”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner