Are the Blake Griffin-less Clippers their best version?

TORONTO -- Where the Los Angeles Clippers go from here is anyone's guess, but the simple fact that they've been not only competitive, but right at elite level since Blake Griffin was injured at Christmas is impressive.

In the past 20 games, all without Griffin, the Clippers are shooting 47%, scoring 107.8 points per game, beating opponents by seven points per game and have gone 15-5. They're fourth in the Western Conference and look like a lock for a home playoff series in the first round.

All excellent numbers offensively, which is only one factor in their success, insists guard J.J. Redick.

"Part of it is a maturation of our team and being able to close games," said Redick, who is participating in the three-point contest Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. "More than that though, is the emphasis we've placed the last couple of months on our defense. Last year, we weren't a top 10 defense and to start this year we were 15-20 for the first six to eight weeks of the season. Over the last two months, we're top 5 in defense. So we've got a bunch of nights that we didn't shoot the ball particularly well -- at Indiana, at Atlanta, and we ended up winning those games because of our defense. So that's been a big part of our run without Blake."

That defensive effort has translated into better offense in general for the Clippers and in Redick's case, some of the best shooting of the season.

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He's hitting 47% from three-point range and 45% overall, averaging 17.5 points. Pair that with Chris Paul's 23 points and 47% shooting and it's not hard to see why they're succeeding.

​"We've had to rely a lot more on our defense in this stretch because with Blake in our lineup, our offense is a lot more fluid," said Paul, a backup guard for the Western All-Stars. "Right now, we've been trusting a lot better as far as defense."

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Despite what you might think, they aren't saying this is a better team without Griffin. They're still missing 23.3 points and 8.7 rebounds. And, it's not clear when he'll return. He had surgery to repair a broken hand after a fight with the assistant equipment manager. When he recovers from that, he'll be suspended four games by the team for the fight.

They're also missing back-up guard Austin Rivers, who is out four to six weeks with a broken bone in his hand.

"We're just basically trying to hold the fort down until everyone gets healthy, we're waiting on Austin (Rivers) to get back and we're waiting on Blake to get back. Once that happens, we'll see what our team really looks like."