LOS ANGELES _ Blake Griffin suffered a left knee injury late in the fourth quarter and wasn't around to see Lou Williams take control of the game and lead the Los Angeles Clippers past the Los Angeles Lakers 120-115 Monday night.
Griffin was injured when Austin Rivers fell back into his teammate's knee when both scrambled for a loose ball from Lonzo Ball.
Griffin's knee twisted around, leaving him in pain and sending him to the locker room.
So he didn't get to see Williams finish with a season-high 42 points to help the Clippers win their home game over the Lakers in the Staples Center both teams share.
After the game, the Clippers would only say Griffin will be "evaluated" Tuesday, but they did not say what for or if he'll get an MRI to determine how severe or not severe the knee injury might be.
"He's not in high spirits," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "He's down. Right now, he's where we are at, hoping that it was just a bang and then it hurt and then he'll be all right. But his spirits are down right now, yeah."
Griffin, who finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, was in the locker room after the game with a towel wrapped around his body. But he didn't tell his story to the media.
Ball had lost control of the basketball in the middle of the lane. Griffin and Rivers had converged on Ball as he lowered his head.
Ball appeared to ram into Griffin, forcing Rivers to in turn hit his teammate's knee.
Griffin tried to stay in the game, but was taken out with three minutes, 53 seconds left and the Clippers leading 112-110 after Brandon Ingram (17 points) had scored.
"On the collision that no fouled was called, yeah, that one," Doc Rivers said about how Griffin was injured. "That's when it happened. You could see right when it happened. I was yelling right away. Lonzo was just trying to make a play, but usually when you go in that hard, they call it. But I think Lonzo knocked Austin into Blake and it was a trigger effect."
Williams had 14 of his points in the fourth quarter.
The team has been playing without Patrick Beverley (season-ending knee injury), Milos Teodosic (plantar fascia injury to left foot) and Danilo Gallinari (strained left glute).
"We've just got to continue to push," Williams said. "We've dealt with injuries this entire season so far. Once Blake went down, we understood the next guy had to step in."
Williams was the main guy, going 12-for-21 from the field, four-for-eight from three-point range.
"He saved us," Doc Rivers said. "He literally won the game for us."
The Clippers have now defeated the Lakers 11 straight times when they have been the home team.
Indeed, the Clippers and Lakers view these confrontations as more than one of 82 games on the NBA schedule, no matter how any of them try to spin it that way.
The two teams went at each other, the Lakers getting a season-high 29 points from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and just three points from Ball.
It's about being in the same city of Los Angeles that the Lakers have always owned. It's about sharing the same Staples Center arena. It's being in the same Pacific Division.
And it's about a rivalry that overall has been lopsided in favor of the Lakers.
DeAndre Jordan yelled and talked trash to Ball after the Clippers center was called for an offensive foul late in the second quarter on the Lakers rookie guard.
Apparently Jordan thought Ball flopped on the play.
But it was the Clippers who did the most complaining. Griffin and Jordan argued every slight, every foul called or not called.
Jordan was not engaged in this game nearly enough.
He had just nine rebounds and nine points.
