CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Los Angeles Clippers have won three straight since losing forward Blake Griffin to a torn quad, and coach Doc Rivers loves the way they are responding.

The Clippers never trailed in a 122-117 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night, hitting a season-high 15 3-pointers and getting 47 points from the bench.

Rivers was clearly excited about the performance afterward, as the Clippers raced to a 12-point first quarter lead and turned back several Charlotte rallies the rest of the way.

"It's huge to win without Blake," Rivers said. "Whenever you can win a game without one of your stars, you just say 'thank you' and you move on to the next game. I think that's how we're playing right now. We just have a single-game focus because that's how we have to play."

The Hornets were missing three players of their own, guard Jeremy Lin and centers Al Jefferson and Spencer Hawes. So Rivers felt it was simply a matter of who wanted it the most.

"We know they're really short-handed and we don't have Blake, so these are games you go into knowing anyone can win the game," Rivers said. "We won the game, so I am happy. Our guys are just playing with the right spirit. You can just see it."

The Clippers (20-13) have now won four straight.

Guard J.J. Redick led the way with 26 points, hitting 5-of-6 from 3-point range. Guard Austin Rivers came off the bench to score a season-high 22 points. Guard Chris Paul had 19 points and 11 assists, center DeAndre Jordan had 13 points and 13 rebounds, forward Paul Pierce scored 13, and guard Jamal Crawford scored 11.

The Clippers were 15-of-30 from beyond the arc, and were also 33-of-41 from the free-throw line.

"We had great ball movement, great spacing," Redick said. "Obviously without Blake we're playing smaller the whole game pretty much so we have three or four shooters on the floor at every point in the game. Whether it was penetration or somebody rolling, we just had the floor wide open and put the defense in tough situations."

Rivers praised his son's performance, and said he expected different players to step up on different nights in Griffin's absence.

"We don't know who the third scorer is without Blake," he said. "Before, it was pretty obvious who the scorers were going to be. Now, we just don't know. But I think when your team is confident and your group is confident, everybody becomes confident."

The Hornets (17-14) had a two-game winning streak snapped.

Guard Kemba Walker led the way with 29 points. Forward Frank Kaminsky scored 20, guards Nicolas Batum and Jeremy Lamb scored 19 each, and center Cody Zeller scored 12.

Hornets coach Steve Clifford did not take questions in his post-game media session, delivering a scathing criticism of his team and then leaving.

"We started the game with no defensive mentality," Clifford said. "We couldn't guard them. Really the tone was set. If you look at the first three and a half minutes of the game, mistake, mistake, late. Poor with talk, letting guys play to their strengths. They were really good obviously. But to me, it's like this: If our expectations of ourselves are going to be that low, that we're not going to meet the challenge of having a chance to play a Paul, a Redick, a Jordan, then we're never going to be the team that we need to be.

"If every time Paul Pierce gets loose you say, Jeez, he's really good," You're not going to win. When that changes, then we'll start to play better.

We have got to get back to the team that we've been," Walker said. "We've gotten away from ourselves a little bit. Just a lot of mistakes."

NOTES: The Hornets announced during the game that C Al Jefferson would undergo arthroscopic surgery Thursday for a torn meniscus. He is expected to miss six weeks. He had recently returned after missing 11 games with a calf injury and an NBA suspension. ... The teams will meet again in Los Angeles on Jan. 9. ... Clippers G Chris Paul has averaged 16.8 points and 10.9 assists in his career against Charlotte, making him one of only three players to average more than 15 points and 10 assists. The others are Magic Johnson and Kevin Johnson. ... Clippers C DeAndre Jordan played in his 355th consecutive game Wednesday, which is second on the NBA's all-time list. Randy Smith holds the franchise record with 595 from 1972-79. ... Jordan leads the NBA in field goal percentage at .712 and ranks second in rebounding at 13.2. The Hornets tried intentionally fouling Jordan at times Wednesday night, and he wound up going 5-of-10 from the line. ... The Clippers were coming off a 108-91 win at Washington on Monday while the Hornets beat the LA Lakers 108-98 on Monday. ... The Clippers will close out this road trip on Thursday at New Orleans. ... The Hornets were closing out a four-game home stand. They will play at Toronto on Friday.