Jamal Crawford scores all of the bench points in Clippers’ win

Jamal Crawford, the NBA’s reigning sixth man of the year, had 25 points off the bench in the Clippers’ 100-94 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

The rest of the bench, which only consisted of Spencer Hawes and Glen “Big Baby” Davis that night, were a combined 0-for-3 from the field.

“He was great,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “I’m laughing because our bench had 25 points tonight and it was one guy. Both teams went with short rotations and it’s one of those rare regular-season playoff-type of games that are a lot of fun to get into, and you don’t get a lot of those.”

The Clippers led the Blazers by as many as nine points, but the teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 72.

Crawford proceeded to make some big plays in the fourth, including a three-pointer with 3 minutes, 58 seconds left to break an 89-89 tie, and a jumper with 2:05 remaining to put the Clippers up by five, 94-89.

“It was one of our better wins,” Crawford said. “I’m not sure if it was our best, but we showed a lot of resolve. We got down in the fourth quarter by five or six points. We didn’t panic. We just found something that worked for us and we were able to get stops.”

The Clippers (26-13) are in sixth place in the Western Conference, 6½ games behind first place Golden State (31-5) and four behind the second-place Trail Blazers (30-9). The Clippers are only a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks (27-13) for fifth place.

It was an impressive win for the Clippers, who have shown a lack of consistency as of late, beating the Mavericks, 120-100, on Saturday, then losing to the Miami Heat, who are in seventh place in the East, 104-90, on Sunday.

Clippers superstar point guard Chris Paul said he’s not focused on which teams they’re beating.

“I think right now I’m just more focussed on how we’re playing,” Paul said.