Clippers try to put thoughts of playoff collapse aside as they ready to host Rockets

J.J. Redick learned to put significant events in perspective while obtaining his history degree from Duke.

Not that it helped him sort out what happened to the Clippers the last time they played the Houston Rockets on their home court.

“I had to try to process what happened and failed at that,” Redick said recently, “so I had to kind of push that to the back burner and I’ll deal with that later in life. I couldn’t really figure out why that happened.”

The stage was set for the Clippers to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history. They led the Rockets by 19 points late in the third quarter of Game 6 of the conference semifinals at Staples Center, needing to avoid only a complete collapse to win a series they led three games to two.

They completely collapsed.

Houston’s Corey Brewer scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, matching the Clippers’ total output, and then-Rockets forward Josh Smith made three three-pointers to help complete a stunning comeback for a 119-107 victory.

The Rockets won Game 7 three days later and the Clippers were left to ponder a bummer of a summer. The teams will play again for the first time since the playoffs on Saturday night at Staples Center, though there was still plenty of looking back Friday.

Clippers forward Blake Griffin said his team could have tried to conserve energy better in its first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs or executed in the final minutes of Game 2 against Houston, which the Rockets rallied to win.

“There’s a lot of different things,” said Griffin, who acknowledged his team “hit a wall physically, mentally” against the Rockets, leading to its collapse. “Finishing, obviously, anyone who watches basketball would say that’s the one thing, but it goes beyond just that.”

Griffin said he thought about the Rockets series over the summer but “wasn’t really like tormented” by it. Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said he brought it up when players and team executives converged on center DeAndre Jordan’s Houston home in July to make their pitch to the free agent but otherwise dropped it.

Who did Rivers think took the loss the hardest?

“Everybody,” he said.

Two current Clippers certainly didn’t mind the outcome: Smith and reserve point guard Pablo Prigioni, who also played for the Rockets last season. Rivers said he expected Smith to provide some valuable insight on the Rockets.

“If he didn’t have any intel,” Rivers said, “then we’re worried about Josh.”

Injury updates

Point guard Chris Paul did not practice Friday because of the strained groin that forced him to miss the final 13 seconds of the Clippers’ loss to Golden State on Wednesday but is considered probable to play against the Rockets.

Griffin said the knee he bumped against a Warriors player had experienced some swelling but not enough to sideline him. “I wouldn’t call this an issue,” he said.

Tweet sorrow

Rivers expressed regret for the message that was sent out by the Clippers’ official Twitter account lampooning the Memphis Grizzlies for having been blown out by the Warriors.

“It just sends so many poor messages,” Rivers said of the tweet that included the hashtag “#didntloseby50.” “We’re the only team right now where the other team can lose by a lot and they’re mad at us. And we had nothing to do with it. That’s what we’re doing right now. I thought it was classless, tasteless and all of the other things.”

CLIPPERS VS. HOUSTON

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

Where: Staples Center.

On the air: TV: Prime; Radio: 980, 1330.

Records: Clippers 4-1, Rockets 2-3 through Thursday.

Record vs. Rockets (2014-15): 2-2.

Update: The Rockets have gotten off to a slower than expected start after adding point guard Ty Lawson in a move that was supposed to give them another playmaker besides James Harden. Harden led the NBA in three-point attempts through the Rockets’ first five games but was one of the league’s worst shooters during that span, making nine of 55 shots (16.4%) from beyond the arc.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch