Paul: Relationship with Griffin 'better now than ever'

Few teams have as much riding on the 2016-17 season as the Los Angeles Clippers, and they've so far risen to the occasion with a league-best 13-2 record and a 13.3-point margin of victory.

Faced with the impending free agency of both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, and the memory of five straight first- or second-round playoff exits, the Clippers seem galvanized by a collective sense of urgency. For Paul and Griffin, that's meant not only carrying the team with some of the finest play of their respective careers, but fostering harmony and balance in what's been, at times, a fraught relationship.

"Oh, no question (it's) better now than ever," Paul told USA Today's Sam Amick. "Like I'm saying, we both have matured so much, and our communication is amazing right now, so sometimes it takes time. That's what (happened) with me and BG, and there's nothing like it right now. We are having some of the most fun that we've had in our time together."

Paul suggested fatherhood has helped both he and Griffin mature (they have two children apiece, after the birth of Griffin's daughter in September), and has given them shared notions of gratitude and responsibility.

"I know for me, when I got my family and my kids it gave me a different perspective on everything," Paul said. "To see Blake now, with two kids and stuff like that, I just - it's different, you know what I mean? You see the sense of urgency, you know what I mean? I think we both share that, and understand that we've got everything that we could ever want, as far as an unbelievable family, you get to play the game that we love, and have all the accolades, and now we just want that one thing."

That one thing is an NBA title, but for this season at least, they'd probably settle for a crack at the Golden State Warriors in the conference finals - where neither Paul nor Griffin nor the 46-year-old Clippers franchise has ever been. There's a sense that the core of Griffin, Paul, and DeAndre Jordan should've made that breakthrough by now, five years after Paul was acquired in a blockbuster trade.

Their window isn't closed, but it's obviously shrunk considerably, and the specter of the upcoming offseason's crossroads looms large.

"Yeah, that (free-agency reality is) all obviously there," Griffin told Amick. "And even on top of that, year after year, after experiencing (playoff disappointments), after feeling like we were close, and going back to when we first came together. I think I was 22, I'd just turned 22 (when Paul joined the Clippers). DJ was about the same age. It was my second year in the league, lockout year, and we have grown a lot over the course of the last five years.

"It's kind of amazing to think back to that time, but year to year you go through those ups and downs. A lot of heartbreak in the playoffs, obviously, well documented, well talked-about everything that we've gone through. ... That sense of urgency is there, and I think it's a combination of a lot of things. But we have matured a lot as a team, and I think we realize what's the most important thing - which is winning. Winning it all."