SALT LAKE CITY -- After spraining his ankle, Chris Paul might have lost some quickness. He compensated with determination. Paul shook off the injury and the teams early sluggishness to score 18 points and extend the Los Angeles Clippers winning streak to 10 with a 96-87 victory over the Utah Jazz on Friday night. "I knew I had just had to find a way," Paul said. "We already said at halftime, its not going to be pretty every night, but stay the course and find a way to win." Before Paul got hurt, it certainly wasnt pretty and the Clippers struggled. Blake Griffin had 20 points, even though he never got into a comfortable flow. "Its never an easy game coming into a place like this," he said. "You cant relax and walk into a building and think youll just win because of who you are or what you done, or a streak youre on." Los Angeles had its lowest points total during the streak, but the Clippers won this time with defence, forcing 20 turnovers by the Jazz that led to 31 points. "Thats what we kept saying in the huddle, Lets play our defence!" Paul said. "Early in the game, it was like they were just in a rocking chair. They were swinging it and getting everything they wanted." The Jazz led 70-60 in the third quarter, but the Clippers capitalized on a rash of Utah miscues and poor shot selection to go on a 20-2 run. "We locked in. The intensity and the effort was finally there," Griffin said. In the midst of the surge, Paul landed awkwardly after scoring and sprained his left ankle. "It was the freakiest thing ever. I layed it up and no one was around me but when I landed, my left foot was on the stanchion," said Paul, who returned after quickly getting the ankle taped between the third and fourth quarters. The point guard limped up and down the court, but still quarterbacked the Clippers come-from-behind-third quarter burst. He had seven points and three assists in the six-minute run that ended with Will Greens 3-pointer with 10:37 to play that made it 80-72. Griffins inside basket extended the lead to 85-74 before the Jazz made one final surge. Hayward made a 3-pointer that closed the gap to 90-85 with 3:25 remaining, but the Jazz couldnt score again until 24 seconds remained and the game was decided. Trey Burke had 18 points -- his third straight with at least that many -- and Derrick Favours also scored 18, but the Jazz made only seven of 19 fourth-period shots and have dropped eight of nine contests. The Clippers scored an average of 115 points a game in their previous nine, but were sluggish early against Utah. The Jazz led by as many as 13 in the first half as they played with more energy than theyve shown in the past several games. One thrilling sequence exemplified Utahs determination near the end of the half. Jeremy Evans and Gordon Hayward blocked back-to-back fast-break layups by the Clippers and brought the crowd to its feet. "Our biggest area of growth will be maintaining that type of intensity throughout the game and playing that way for 48 minutes," Burke said. The Clippers missed the shooting and playmaking of Jamal Crawford (calf), but turned to their stars, Paul and Griffin, to bring them back and claim their ninth straight against the Jazz. "Chris started being more aggressive," Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers said. "I think sometimes he wants to be the point guard, but tonight we needed his scoring." Griffin ranks fourth in the league with more than 28 points per game since Feb. 3 and has now scored at least 20 points in 25 consecutive games, the second-longest current streak in the NBA. But it was defence that turned the tide. "It was definitely a defensive thing," Griffin said. Matt Barnes contributed 15 points and Darren Collison had 14 as the Clippers set a season-high for fast-break points with 31. "Were tough to guard in transition. Blake makes some great decisions," Paul said. Starting in place of injured Marvin Williams (back), Enes Kanter had 11 points and 15 rebounds, but shot just 5 for 17 for the Jazz. "In the second half, they were just aggressive and we couldnt match them," Kanter said. NOTES: In honour of the upcoming St. Patricks Day holiday, the Jazz wore their road green uniforms. The Clippers played in their regular red away attire. ... Collisons layup at the first-half buzzer was disallowed after video review. ... The Jazz fell to 0-12 when Williams is out with injury, while the Clippers are 6-0 without Crawford. ... Paul had seven assists to move into 30th place all-time, passing Mookie Blaylock. George Springer Jersey . First, Ivan Nova decided to have season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery. Then Michael Pineda was suspended for 10 games for using pine tar. Ken Giles Jersey . His stated reason for abruptly resigning as head coach of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team was he felt there were doubts about his ability to coach the team to Olympic gold in February. http://www.astrosteamproshop.com/Astros-Justin-Verlander-Kids-Jersey/ . The club was unable to retain hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, who is bound for Atlanta. Seitzer replaces Greg Walker, who was assisted by Scott Fletcher this season as the Braves finished 79-83. Jeff Bagwell Jersey J.R. Richard Jersey .J. -- Jaromir Jagr has hit so many NHL milestones this season for the New Jersey Devils that he is starting to downplay them.SHENZHEN, China - Second-seeded Andy Murray rallied from a set down to beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 Saturday and reach the final of the Shenzhen Open.From 3-3 in the second set, Murray won nine straight games to beat Monaco in 1 hour, 42 minutes and set up a meeting with fourth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain in Sundays final.Robredo overpowered sixth-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-1, 6-4.In the third set, Murray dropped just four points on serve and converted all three of his break points. In Sundays final, he will be bidding for his first title since his Wimbleddon triumph in July 2013.ddddddddddddMurray has struggled since back surgery a year ago.Its been a tough year for me, Murray said. The first few months coming back from surgery were hard, then I lost a bit of confidence. But Ive felt better the past few months and hopefully I can have a strong end to the season.Murray accepted a wild card into Shenzhen in a bid to to improve his ranking from 11th into the top eight, so as to qualify for the ATP Finals in London in November.Robredo had 10 aces and converted four of his seven break points to beat Giraldo in 70 minutes. ' ' '