Clippers Give N.B.A. a Jolt That Just Might Endure LOS ANGELES - It was another electric night in Staples Center, which meant the young, exciting Clippers were playing, not the Lakers, the former kings of all they surveyed locally. Everything is upside down, and not just here. The Knicks were supposedly getting Chris Paul, the new Clippers linchpin. Paul even joked about forming "our own big three" with Amar'e Stoudemire in his toast at Carmelo Anthony's 2011 wedding and was hailed as another savior in waiting when his New Orleans Hornets played in Madison Square Garden last spring. When the Knicks fell out of the running, the Lakers were supposedly getting Paul. Instead, he became a Clipper in a whirlwind of events that changed everything. The Clippers are a hit, capable of going beyond mere highlights to spectacular, as in last Monday's 112-100 victory over Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City. They had broken the game open with a 50-second flash of pure energy, stealing the ball twice and hitting four 3-pointers - "the best exchange I've ever been part of as long as I've been in the N.B.A.," Paul said - when the Clippers" Blake Griffin, rolling to the basket, encountered the fearsome Kendrick Perkins in the third quarter. Unaware of which 6-foot-10 player Perkins was, or unimpressed by him, Griffin, the N.B.A. version of Mercury with wings on his feet, leaped. When his forward progress was halted by Perkins's mighty right arm to his chest, Griffin tomahawked the ball into the basket. If Griffin just grazed the rim, he didn't touch it last year in his 14th N.B.A. game, when he did to the Knicks" Timofey Mozgov a move now known as being Mozgoved. This one was like a comet, visible from Staples to anywhere fans devoted enough were watching. It was 12:15 a.m. on the East Coast. From Miami, LeBron James cheerfully conceded that his ballyhooed alley-oop dunk - a mere jump over Chicago's diminutive John Lucas, who didn't even know he was there - "is No. 2 now. Oakland Raiders cornerback Chimdi Chekwa (@ChimChek) wrote on Twitter: "If this was the NFL he would get fined. No regard for human life! These eruptions of joy at N.B.A. feats of derring-do are treasured reviews for the league - and timely ones after the season's start was delayed by a lockout and the shortened schedule was compressed. The Clippers are no less amazed to find they have bottled lightning and now carry it around with them, and are no less aware that they must perform to keep Paul when his contract ends in 2013, and Griffin's in 2014. Paul bought the singer Avril Lavigne's $8.5 million Bel Air mansion, although he says it doesn't mean he will stay. "That hasn't got anything to do with me and basketball, I'll tell you that much," Paul said, adding that he had nothing to do with house-hunting. My wife did all that stuff. I've been in the gym and all that stuff. Last season was the standard disappointment for the Clippers. They went 32-50. An arbitrator awarded Mike Dunleavy, the fired coach and general manager, the $13 million he sought when the team stopped paying him. The basketball operation was pared to two full-time employees, General Manager Neil Olshey - a Dunleavy protégé - and the player personnel director, Gary Saks. Another Clipper from left field, Olshey, 47, grew up in Flushing, Queens, and attended Xavier High School, 19 blocks from Madison Square Garden. He coached in the wild world of Amateur Athletic Union basketball and worked for the agent Arn Tellem before crossing over to the Clippers. Coming out of the lockout, Olshey was overjoyed to sign Caron Butler even as the Lakers, still in their own firmament, closed in on Paul and entertained hopes of landing Orlando's Dwight Howard, too. After that, depending on whom you ask, a funny, depressing or outrageous thing happened on the way to the season. Commissioner David Stern, acting as the de facto New Orleans owner, rejected General Manager Dell Demps's deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers. With Howard asking to be traded and the Magic open to offers, the Lakers withdrew from talks to reconfigure the Paul deal. With the Knicks" projected 2012-13 maximum slot trimmed by $3 million when the new labor deal froze the salary cap and their flexibility lost in the Anthony trade, the Clippers were the only team left on Paul's list. Needing players because New Orleans sought so many of theirs, the Clippers claimed the former Knick Chauncey Billups, despite his expiring contract and his request to be allowed to clear waivers. Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and the 2012 Minnesota No. 1 pick the Clippers owned went to New Orleans for Paul. The Clippers have lived happily ever after, or, at least, ever since. "When we talked to Chauncey," Olshey said, "I said, look, where we were two years ago, three years ago, where our culture was, some of the dysfunction we were fighting, I wouldn't have done it to him. He's a Hall of Famer. He's one of the classiest guys in the league. I wouldn't have just hijacked him. But I knew that now, if he was open-minded when he got here, that he would embrace it. At the moment, Paul and Billups are a twin point tandem of the kind that hasn't been seen since the 1970s with Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, and Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. Unlike Clippers ensembles of the past, this one might not end in a race to the door. If Billups's options could include playing the point for the Heat or the Lakers, he said the Clippers might be his best shot. New league rules would allow the Clippers to extend Griffin's contract this summer by letting them offer $90 million, while capping any deal he could get if he waits to leave as a free agent in 2014 at $60 million. Whatever Paul will need to re-sign, seeing Griffin secured must head the list. No one has to ask what could go wrong for the Clippers because of their history. Nevertheless, with Griffin and Paul named All-Star starters and the free agent Kenyon Martin having chosen them over Miami, the Clippers have never had a chance like this one.