With the Clippers trailing by one, the All-Star point guard drilled a step-back, turnaround jumper with 3.2 seconds to go and L.A. escaped Wells Fargo Center with a 78-77 victory Friday over the Atlantic Division leading 76ers.

“It was all scatter,” said Paul, who had a game-high 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting. “I probably made a bad pass in the lane and [Griffin] came up with it and threw it out top and I got it back and made a play.”

“He was supposed to throw it to me and I was supposed to fall on the ground and throw it back to him,” Griffin joked after the game.

“[The win] is great,” Griffin said. “We knew they were going to make a run since they were playing at home. They don’t give up. They are a tough team, and I thought it says a lot about our guys the way we did that, held our ground and came up with a big win down the stretch.”

Paul also had four assists and four rebounds, while Griffin added 16 points and 11 boards. However, if not for Paul’s final play, Friday may have gone down as “The Reggie Evans Game.”

On one possession, Evans snared two offensive rebounds and Martin grabbed another. Early in the fourth, after Evans switched onto Lou Williams he stole the ball, dove to the floor, and flipped it ahead to Randy Foye, who made both free throws after being fouled on a layup attempt.

“Man, man, man. That’s all I can say,” Paul said when asked about Evans’ performance. “Reggie’s favorite quote is ‘I aint’ lyin’ and he was the player of the game, ‘I ain’t lyin’.”

Evans finished with a season-high 10 rebounds and Martin had seven. The duo combined for 10 of the Clippers’ 15 offensive boards.

“They [the Clippers] just physically were so strong for us around the basket,” Sixers head coach Doug Collins said. “We just couldn’t come up with some rebounds.”

The turning point in the fourth came when Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro countered a small Philadelphia lineup with Paul, Foye, Martin, Evans, and Griffin. It was the first extended stretch of the season for Griffin at small forward and the group responded with arguably one of the most inspired defensive stretches of the season, holding the Sixers without a field goal for the final 5:28 of the fourth quarter.

The Clippers survived despite shooting 38.8% from the floor, 2-for-19 from 3-point range, and converting only 14 assists.

Early on, the Sixers defense held the Clippers to just five makes in their first 18 attempts, but Mo Williams, who missed shoot around with a stomach virus, brought L.A. back in the second quarter. After missing his first two shots, Mo Williams knocked down a 3-pointer to cut Philadelphia’s 12-point lead to nine and went on to score 12 consecutive points.

The run by Mo Williams (14 points in 33 minutes) coincided with the Clippers improving on the defensive end and after Griffin’s step-through dunk around rookie Lavoy Allen and Paul’s layup knifing through the center of the lane, L.A. grabbed a one-point lead.

It was short-lived, though. Thaddeus Young scored on a well-executed pick and roll and Butler missed an open 3-pointer from the wing and Philadelphia took a 43-41 lead into halftime.

NOTES

Paul averages 22 points per game in Clippers wins, just 11 in their eight losses… Former Clipper Elton Brand had 12 points and 10 rebounds in his second game since returning from a strained right thumb… The Clippers committed just seven turnovers.