Sore knee could sideline Clippers’ Blake Griffin on Saturday against New Orleans

Clippers forward Blake Griffin has a sore right knee and his availability for Saturday night’s game against New Orleans at Staples Center will be determined at game time, the team announced Friday.

The Clippers also said the injury wasn’t serious. Before the media was escorted out of the team’s early morning practice Friday, Griffin could be seen taking jump shots. He didn’t talk to reporters.

“Blake, we’re just watching,” Coach Doc Rivers said during his talk with the media, adding, “I don’t know yet” whether Griffin would play against the Pelicans.

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When the Clippers played at Indiana two weeks ago, Griffin wore a sleeve on his right leg with a compression pad on his knee during that game.

Griffin said then that he had some swelling in his right calf from having been kicked there during a game against the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 25.

Clippers looking to get right

The Clippers have lost five of their last seven games, a mini-tailspin that has left them exasperated.

They started the season 14-2, at that time the best record in the NBA.

“At no point in this season did I think this team would lose five out of seven games,” guard Austin Rivers said. “I think we’re that good of a team. This is already too much. So we need to move on from here and just get better. That’s what we need to do.”

The timing could be right for the Clippers to get on another roll. Of their next six opponents, none currently has a winning record.

“I just want us to move forward,” Austin Rivers said. “We have a chance, looking at the schedule, to run off four or five in a row. It’s not going to be easy. New Orleans is playing better basketball . . . [and] they’ve got a lot of their guys back. Orlando, they play hard. But we have a chance where we can come together. If we do that, then we’ll be feeling a lot better about ourselves and get us some positive momentum, which is what we need right now.”

The Clippers have tossed out words like “spirit” and “mojo,” things they say have been missing lately.

Rivers, however, has a simple solution.

“I just think we need to go play,” he said. “I don’t think we need to put too much into it. The fact is we haven’t played well as of late. . . . I think we need to stop caring about outside voices, anybody. We just need to focus on what we do as a team and just keep pushing forward. It’s such a long season. I don’t want us to get hung up on this. I want us to continue to get better.”

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Clippers forward Blake Griffin talks about the 115-98 loss to Golden State.

CLIPPERS VS. NEW ORLEANS

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. PST.

Where: Staples Center.

On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 570, 1330.

Records: Clippers 16-7, Pelicans 7-16.

Records vs. Pelicans: 1-0.

Update: The Clippers have won five of their last six games against the Pelicans. This will be the 3,000th regular-season Clippers game announcer Ralph Lawler has broadcast. He will become the third active play-by-play announcer to have called 3000-plus games for one NBA team, joining Al McCoy of Phoenix and George Blaha of Detroit. Pelicans forward Anthony Davis leads the NBA in scoring (31.4) and blocks per game (2.77), is seventh in rebounds (11.4) and tied for sixth in double-doubles (14).