Clippers’ Doc Rivers and Blake Griffin refuse to jump ahead of Game 3 focus

The Clippers have been here before. It hasn’t gone well.

They won the first two games of their first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies in 2013, leading some to wonder whether a sweep might result in the start of the next round being moved up a few days.

They held a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals over the Houston Rockets last season, prompting one ESPN tabulation to give them the best chance of the remaining teams to win the NBA title.

Looking ahead wasn’t a good idea in either series. The Clippers lost both.

So it was only natural for them to wince a bit when reminded of early playoff successes that led to epic failures. The Clippers could be forgiven if a 2-0 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers heading into Game 3 on Saturday night at the Moda Center felt more like 2-uh-oh.

“By no means have we accomplished anything,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said.

Griffin noted that the only playoff series the Clippers have prevailed in since his arrival in 2009 were won the hard way: in seven games. Each happened in the first round, against Memphis in 2012, Golden State in 2014 and San Antonio last season.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers got a bit testy when a reporter asked whether he had heard players talk about trying to close out the Portland series before it went much further.

“We’ve got Game 3,” Rivers said. “You guys can talk about closeouts and all that crap. We’ve got Game 3. They can talk about it all they want, but if they don’t have focus on Game 3, we will have a Game 7.”

Taking a shorter route to the conference semifinals in the coming days would be preferable for a couple of reasons. It would probably put the Clippers on equal footing with the Warriors, their presumed opponent in the next round, in terms of rest. Golden State leads Houston, two games to one, in a series that isn’t expected to go the distance.

Finishing off Portland in four or five games would also allow Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick to stay off his bruised left heel for a few days. The heel has been so sore that Redick said it hurt to walk, and it and prevented him from working out with the team Friday.

Rivers glanced at Redick walking away from reporters in black rubber flip-flops after an interview Friday morning and quipped, “Obviously, you’re going to practice hard today.”

Redick said his lack of court time over the previous 48 hours led to some “verbal sparring” with trainer Jasen Powell but conceded that he had dutifully complied with the request to sit out. He did note his heel felt better after Game 2 than it had after Game 1.

The Clippers have gotten used to the hurt of playoff disappointment, having never made it to the conference finals. They came close in each of the last two seasons. There was the big series lead they lost to Houston and a seven-point lead coughed up in the final minute of Game 5 in the conference semifinals against Oklahoma City in 2014. The Thunder won that series in six games.

“I think it’s in all of our minds,” Griffin said. “Some guys obviously weren’t here, but the guys who were here and the guys who went through it, it’s hard to forget something like that, and I don’t think you should. That’s kind of how you learn from it and become better.”

Griffin said he told his teammates before the season started that they were ready to move on to a new subject, having mastered the art of defeat.

“If there’s one thing we’ve done and we know how to do, it’s lose,” Griffin said. “We’re not going to do the same things we’ve done in the past. I think this year we’ve kind of embraced that, not being a team that does what losers do, and changing that mind-set, I guess.”

Finishing what they started would be a good beginning.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch