The San Antonio Spurs are looking to continue their dominance at the AT&T Center when they host the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night. It is the first meeting between the two teams since the Clippers outlasted the Spurs in their classic first-round series in last year's playoffs.

The Spurs are the second best team in the NBA and are winners of their past eight games out of nine while the Clippers have overcome a poor start to win nine out of their 11 games so far in December. Los Angeles have a good chance of giving San Antonio their first home loss as they handed the Spurs their worst home defeat last season 105-85 .

The Clippers are coming off a 103-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks last Wednesday. Chris Paul scored 21 points with six rebounds, eight assists and two steals to lead the Clippers. J.J. Redick added 19 points and three assists while Blake Griffin had 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

"Our guys made some big shots and our defense was the key, as it is every night. We just tried to shrink the court on their scorers and slow those guys down as much as we could," Paul said after the game.

Paul Pierce became the 16th player in NBA history to reach 26,000 career points when he hit a buzzer-beater to end the first quarter. He finished the game with six points, three rebounds and two assists.

"Paul is just special. I think Paul has scored most of his points from fundamentals. Every kid should watch his footwork and he's still beating guys off the dribble," head coach Doc Rivers said.

San Antonio won their 23rd straight home game, a team record, in an easy 114-95 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night. The Spurs are flying under the radar again and leads the league in several defensive stats.

Kawhi Leonard had 27 points, three rebounds, four assists and four steals while LaMarcus Aldridge added 14 points and six rebounds. Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills both scored 11 points off the bench and David West contributed nine points and ten rebounds, starting for Tim Duncan who was given a night off by Greg Popovich.

"We showed a lot more aggressiveness, a lot more contact and a lot more competitiveness in the second half, starting with transition D. That changed the game for us," Popovich said regarding the Spurs defense.

Tip-off in San Antonio starts at 8:00 p.m. ET and is nationally televised on ESPN. The game is also broadcasted locally on CW35 HD and PRIME TICKET.