Clippers hope their week of pain doesn’t continue in Game 6 against the Trail Blazers

There’s a little black spot on the sun today

It’s the same old thing as yesterday

—The Police

It’s always something for the Clippers.

A seven-point collapse in the final 49 seconds, a failure to win a closeout game in three chances, the loss of two superstars to injury within minutes during the same playoff game.

Things tend to drift into chaos theory whenever the Clippers close in on the kind of playoff run that leads to book deals and kids mimicking heroes in the backyard.

“You never say you’ve been through everything,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said last week, before the latest injuries and the losses, with a chuckle that seems far more eerie now, “but we’ve been through a lot.”

The Clippers’ seemingly cursed existence appears destined for another unhappy ending Friday night at the Moda Center in Game 6 of their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Simple math says the Clippers need only one victory to send the series back to Staples Center for a Game 7 on Sunday because they’re trailing three games to two in the best-of-seven series after three consecutive defeats.

There’s only two issues: No Chris Paul and no Griffin.

There was no overcoming that reality in the fourth quarter of Game 5, when the Trail Blazers outscored the drooping Clippers by 10 points amid a combined 25-point outburst from their backcourt.

The Clippers immediately sought some historical context, pointing to their comeback from an identical 3-2 deficit in the first round of the playoffs last season against the San Antonio Spurs. It was a rally that started with a road victory in San Antonio.

“I have total confidence in our team,” Clippers shooting guard Jamal Crawford said last April before repeating himself almost word for word late Wednesday night. “Most people had us losing this series, but for us, we feel like we have a great shot. We just have to go there and get one and come back home.”

Remembering the Alamo may not be all that helpful. Griffin, who scored 26 points in that Game 6 against the Spurs, won’t be available on Friday after undergoing a bone marrow injection in his partially torn left quadriceps tendon. The procedure was similar to platelet-rich plasma treatment and is expected to keep Griffin out of the Olympics this summer because he cannot resume basketball activities for several months.

The upside is that Griffin will not need more invasive surgery and should be back to his high-flying ways by the start of training camp next fall. He did not undergo the procedure earlier this season because it would have kept him out of the playoffs.

Paul is also unavailable against the Trail Blazers after breaking a bone in his right hand in Game 4. He had already declared himself out for the Olympics, part of his effort to preserve his body for the latter years of his NBA career.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers radically altered his starting lineup in Game 5 to compensate for the loss of his top two players. He replaced Paul with Austin Rivers for defensive purposes. He also went with Crawford for added scoring punch and 38-year-old Paul Pierce for increased spacing, but neither of those moves worked.

Crawford missed 17 of 23 shots, in part because of his game-high 44 minutes, and Pierce hardly resembled someone worthy of playoff basketball, going scoreless while hoisting an airball and a couple of lobs that went for turnovers.

Not everyone was so inert. Forward Luc Mbah a Moute, who did not play after starting for most of the season, showed some dexterity by heading for the tunnel with about 20 seconds left in the game.

Doc Rivers said Thursday during a conference call with reporters that he regretted not playing Mbah a Moute at least a few minutes off the bench to rest other players. Among the changes Rivers was contemplating for Game 6 was increasing Wesley Johnson’s minutes, utilizing Jeff Green more at small forward and using Mbah a Moute as a small-ball center whenever DeAndre Jordan is on the bench.

No matter who is on the court, the Clippers must break through at a place where they have lost twice in the last week.

“We have to play a game [Friday] where we just play through the game,” Doc Rivers said. “When things are going great, great. When things are going poorly, which they do at times on the road, you’ve got to play through that and have great resolve, and I think our guys do that.”

Playoff failures have become a rite of spring for the Clippers. They led the Oklahoma City Thunder by seven points in the final minute of Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals in 2014 before losing the game and the series. They held a three-games-to-one lead over the Houston Rockets last season before falling back to Earth with three consecutive defeats.

The Clippers know what will happen if they don’t prevail in Game 6 against the Trail Blazers. It isn’t the stuff of dreams.

“I don’t want to equate a basketball game to death,” shooting guard J.J. Redick said Wednesday, “but it is do or die. We have to figure out a way to win the game and get it back here in front of our home crowd for Game 7.”

Either that, or add to a legacy of pain.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch