Chris Paul had the worst possible start to his shooting day. His finish, however, was perfect.

Paul’s consecutive 3-pointers in the final minutes were daggers to a Miami comeback, and his game-high 22 points helped the Los Angeles Clippers hang on to beat the host Heat, 100-93, on Sunday.

‘‘I kept shooting it,’’ Paul said, ‘‘because sooner or later it had to go in.’’

J.J. Redick added 14 points for the Clippers, who won despite a 1-for-15 start from the field and swept the two-game season series.

‘‘That was a team win because nobody really had it going,’’ Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. ‘‘But our defense really had it going all game.’’

Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Goran Dragic all scored 17 points for Miami.

Luol Deng added 15 points for the Heat, and Hassan Whiteside finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

‘‘They did to us what we've been doing the last few games, just grinding an opponent,’’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ‘‘That’s what they did to us, then made the bigger plays down the stretch.’’

Paul was 0 for 7 in the opening period, the worst one-quarter shooting performance of his NBA career, and was 0 for 9 before he finally got a shot to fall. He finished 8 of 23.

But his 3-pointers in the fourth snuffed out a Miami rally, and his lob that set up Jordan for a dunk was the clincher for the Clippers — who, after that horrid start, shot 55 percent the rest of the way.

Miami went to the oft-used strategy of intentionally fouling Jordan in the third quarter to slow the Clippers’ offense. And while it worked to a point — Jordan went 3 for 10 from the free throw line in the quarter — Miami couldn’t score. The Heat were 4 for 20 in the third, got down by as many as 11, and never led again.

‘‘They made big plays down the stretch,’’ Wade said. ‘‘That’s the way we've been winning of late, so we can’t be mad at that. We got a little taste of our own medicine.’’

Nuggets 101, Knicks 96 — Rookie Emmanuel Mudiay scored 9 of his 15 points during a decisive fourth-quarter run, and Denver sent host New York to its fifth straight loss.

Mudiay also had nine assists, and Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton had 19 points each as Denver won for the third time in four games.

Kristaps Porzingis had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who have lost nine of 10 since they were 22-22 and looking like a realistic playoff team. Carmelo Anthony returned to face his former team after missing a game to rest his sore left knee, finishing with 21 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds. But he shot just 7 for 19.

Magic 96, Hawks 94 — After squandering a late fourth-quarter lead, Orlando got the home win when Nikola Vucevic sank an 18-footer at the buzzer.

Vucevic finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. Elfrid Payton, who set up Vucevic’s winning shot with an inbounds pass with 2.2 seconds left, scored or assisted the Magic’s final six baskets. Until Vucevic’s winning shot, the Magic had gone scoreless since Payton’s jump shot with 3:41 left provided a 94-86 lead.

Jeff Teague scored 24 for Atlanta, which had won three straight. Kent Bazemore finished with 23 points and eight rebounds.