Doc Rivers jokes he hopes the Clippers’ cellphones don’t work in China

By going to China, the Clippers are missing out on many practices that they would have had if they remained local.

But the team, with nine new players, may be gaining something invaluable off the court.

“You’re on a plane for 13 hours together, you’re in another country, hopefully their cellphones don’t work, so they have to talk to each other,” Coach Doc Rivers said Monday morning in Newport Beach before a charity golf tournament. “It’s a forced week together…it can’t be bad, let’s put it that way.”

The Clippers are clearly in need of gelling.

The team’s second unit, which now includes Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith, Paul Pierce and Wesley Johnson, has not quite clicked yet. In the team’s first exhibition, they nearly blew a double-digit lead that the starters had built. Then on Sunday, they helped turn a four-point hole into a blowout loss.

Rivers said at this point in the year, with so few practices and games, it’s way too early to put any expectations on the reserves, though he remains optimistic that they will eventually look as good in games as they do on paper.

“I just want them to be good and at some point I think they will be,” he said.