Short-handed Clippers put up little fight in loss to the Nuggets

The start of a harrowing stretch in which the Clippers play 10 of their next 11 games away from home began Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets. It did not end well.

It was not the way the Clippers wanted to begin this three-game trip, dropping a 123-98 game to the Nuggets and getting run off the Pepsi Center court with hardly any sort of resistance.

The 25-point loss was one point shy of the Clippers’ worst loss of the season. The 35-point deficit in the fourth quarter was tied for their biggest margin of the season.

It all left Austin Rivers going on a rant about his team not competing.

“Just compete and let everything else just come,” Rivers said after scoring 16 points. “Whether we win or lose, we’re going to compete. A team is going to have to leave the game when we play and say, ‘Man, they play hard.’ That’s what they got to say.

“Tonight they were just like, ‘Aw, man, smack them.’ That should never happen because we don’t have that luxury right now. That’s all I’m focused on.… Compete. We got to go and play extremely hard and compete, man, show some ... heart. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

The numbers will show that DeAndre Jordan was productive, his 14 points and 13 rebounds giving him his 20th double-double of the season.

But Jordan couldn’t stay out of foul trouble, picking up five fouls through three quarters. And he couldn’t maintain his composure, picking up his 11th technical foul of the season with two minutes 23 seconds left in the third.

Then during the timeout, Jordan stood on the sidelines and clapped at the officials, who ignored the Clippers center as he mocked them.

Jordan then sat on the bench and watched the Clippers’ go up in flames.

Like the rest of his teammates, the Clippers did very little to stop the Nuggets from making 53% of their shots, 42% (10 for 24) of their three-pointers.

The Nuggets had six players score in double figures, led by Nikola Jokic’s 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“We just played poorly,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “They played well. I think our guys showed up. They wanted to win. We just didn’t play well. It happens.”

As the Clippers head to Atlanta for a game Monday night and to Philadelphia on Tuesday night, they at least know help is on the way for a team that has lost two straight games.

Before this trip ends, Blake Griffin will be back, mostly likely against the 76ers on Tuesday. Griffin has missed the last 17 consecutive games recovering from right knee surgery.

Meanwhile, Marreese Speights started at power forward for the first time this season.

Speights had 18 points, but 11 came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.

“I felt like we let the little things bother us tonight,” Austin Rivers said. “Once that gets going, you start making more and more mistakes. Yada, yada, yada, etcetera.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner