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Rivers: "We’re Very Close To Going On An Amazing Run"

Rowan Kavner

ATLANTA – Losing three or four games hasn’t stopped head coach Doc Rivers from feeling things will turn around soon in a major way.

The Clippers have dropped five of their last eight overall as they work through a particularly tiresome stretch of games in mid-December, but Rivers isn’t discouraged by a string of close defeats.

“I actually like the way we’re playing,” Rivers said. “I think we’re very close to going on an amazing run. I can feel it; I can see it. We’re just not pulling them out right now.”

The Clippers’ last four games have come in five nights and four different time zones. Three of those were road losses. They fell to Denver on Friday and returned home for a win against the Bucks only to go on the road and lose a back-to-back in San Antonio and Atlanta.

In all three losses, the Clippers were either tied or led in the fourth quarter before falling just short for various reasons.

“It was a tough trip,” Rivers said. “I’m not going to overanalyze it. We lose a couple games, guys are tired. We play hard, we’re in most of them. We’re not going to win them all.”

While the losses would discourage some coaches, it’s been the opposite for Rivers, who believes the Clippers are “very close” and only need to fix some defensive parts of their game to go on a run.

“I’m encouraged,” Rivers said. “I hate losing, I don’t like losing, I’m not a good loser, but at the end of the day, our guys are really playing well. When you factor in fatigue and how hard they’re playing, I’ll live with this team all day.

“You can just feel it, it’s coming. I don’t know when, but it’s coming, and when it comes, we’re going to be in great shape.”

His players have mixed feelings toward how they’re currently playing. Blake Griffin said the quality play is happening in stretches, but he thinks it’s time the Clippers put it all together. Tuesday against the Hawks, the Clippers led early in the fourth quarter before falling behind and not quite having enough juice at the end.

“We’re just tired, but you’ve just got to take care of your body and find that energy,” Griffin said. “I kind of keep saying it, but every team goes through bad stretches, stretches where you’re traveling a lot and going all over the place. You’ve just got to deal with it.”

Jamal Crawford thought positively about how the Clippers are playing and said he can feel that they’re “really close,” citing how tight each of their last three road losses ended up.

“It’s not a discouraging thing,” Crawford said. “I think it shows we ultimately can continue to get better. We’re right there. It’s a fine line between winning and losing.”

The frustrating part for Crawford is that sometimes lessons have to come in losses, but he believes the Clippers can come out stronger. The Clippers went through a similar stretch early in the year, going 3-4 before rattling off 11 wins in 12 games.

“If you look at the positives, where you’re at and where you can go, it helps,” Crawford said.

Rivers said he’s not sure when exactly the run will come, but he believes it’ll be soon. DeAndre Jordan said he knows the Clippers are close, but he added that other teams are already there.

“We’ve just got to do it,” Jordan said. “We’re trying to stay positive. It’s true, we don’t want to peak out now, but we’ve definitely got to get better. We can’t be saying we’ve got time in February.”

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