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Clippers Resilient Again In Wake Of Injuries

Rowan Kavner Digital Content Coordinator

BOSTON - Head coach Doc Rivers doesn’t talk to his team about the uphill battle without Blake Griffin. He didn’t mention how that climb got even higher this road trip without Austin Rivers.

Somehow, the Clippers continue to truck on shorthanded, now finding themselves 18-4 since losing Griffin and 3-0 on this road trip without both Griffin and Rivers, a player the Clippers have commended particularly for his defensive contributions.

“We refuse to talk about injury,” Doc Rivers said. “We refuse to make excuses… We come to win, that’s the only thing we have to think about.”

Adversity never seems far away from the Clippers, even when things are at their peak.

In recent years, they’ve dealt with a serious shoulder injury to Chris Paul and a staph infection to Blake Griffin. They’ve dealt with all the off-court distractions they could’ve imagined leading to an ownership change. In a single postseason, they felt the euphoria of a last-second seven-game series win against the Spurs and a subsequent debilitating seven-game series loss to the Rockets.

What followed this season was yet another difficult-to-fathom barrier with the Griffin news, which shook up what happens on the court more than any previous distraction.

The Clippers lost Griffin to a quad injury, then to a hand injury stemming from the off-court altercation. Even when he returns healthy, the Clippers announced Tuesday they’d be without him another four games following a suspension.

For some teams, that news would be too much. For most teams, they’d at least see their wins dwindle. The Clippers, meanwhile, somehow respond with resilience, putting together an even better winning percentage than they had prior.

“I think it’s a credit to Doc and his system,” said Jamal Crawford. “I think it’s a credit to us believing in what he’s doing, believing in each other. We just keep buying in together, just stay doing that. We’re doing an excellent job of that. Coach and his staff keep us focused, and we just take it game by game.”

It’s a cliché, but injuries as serious as the one to Griffin force a team not to take any night off. When the Clippers do, as they did for basically 48 minutes in Philadelphia, they’re still finding a way to triumph in the nick of time.

“We’re becoming that team that no matter how it looks or the game is being played, we’re finding ways at the end,” Doc Rivers said.

Perhaps, what’s happened in recent years has seasoned the Clippers. Nothing seems too farfetched or impossible. For years now, they’ve dealt with unforeseen circumstances, even ones as seemingly incapacitating as losing an MVP candidate for a month and a half, and likely longer.

They just adjust.

“By any means necessary,” Paul said after the news Austin Rivers fractured his hand. “For us, once again, unfortunately, we’re sort of used to this now. Guys going down, we realize we’ve just got to pick it up.”

They’ve gone small and received added contributions from just about everyone on the roster. They’ve watched Chris Paul average 21.1 points and 10.4 assists in January, then follow that up by averaging 21 points per game in February. They’ve watched J.J. Redick continue his career year, with the sharpshooter scoring at least 20 points nine times since Griffin went down.

They’ve watched Jamal Crawford score at least 20 points in five straight games and Lance Stephenson go 23-for-28 in his last six games. They’ve watched DeAndre Jordan increase his rebound average to 15.1 in January, then 16.3 in four February games. They’ve increased their defensive intensity.

And, they don’t talk about it.

Doc Rivers said maybe he’s too simplistic about it, but he feels mentioning the adversity and the obstacles won’t solve anything.

Whatever his strategy, it appears to be working. His players, once again, are responding.

“I think we’ve got a lot of guys on our team that have got a lot of grit and a lot of perseverance,” Paul said. “For us, in all honesty, there’s nothing really that can happen that we haven’t sort of seen.”

The Clippers know what it’s like to be shorthanded, going 12-6 when Paul missed a stretch in 2013-14 and 9-6 last season when Griffin went out with a staph infection.

What happened this year, a loss this serious for this long, could’ve had a harsher impact. Yet, somehow, they keep winning, entering Boston having won 12 of their last 14 road games, as if nothing odd happened the first half of the season.

With a win against the Celtics, they’d head into the All-Star break on a four-game winning streak, each victory coming on the road.

“I just know they believe they can win games,” Doc Rivers said. “They believe in each other.”