Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 119-117 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Clippers lost on the road in the final minute, 119-117, to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

Here are five takeaways from the game:

1. Early in the fourth quarter, when Kevin Durant sat on the scorer’s table during a time out, he had a question for the person keeping tabs on everyone’s scoring.

“How many threes has Austin hit?” Durant asked. He was told Austin Rivers had made six. Durant just shook his head and walked back to the court.

As it turned out, Rivers scored a career-high 32 points during the Clippers’ loss to the Thunder.

He made a career-high seven three-pointers. He made his first six three-pointers, finishing the game seven-for-nine from three-point range.

“It’s just playing,” Rivers said. “My whole focus is coming in every game and competing. Come in, compete. Come in, compete.”

2. The Clippers were able to stay in the game against the Thunder because they knocked down the three-pointers.

They made 55.2% (16-for-29) of their three-pointers.

Besides Rivers being hot from behind the line, Jamal Crawford was five-for-eight from three-point range. Luc Mbah a Moute made his only three-point attempt, Wesley Johnson was two-for-six and Jeff Green was one-for-five.

3. The Clippers knew with center DeAndre Jordan home resting that they would be hurt in the rebounding department.

They were.

The Clippers were out-rebounded 46-26. They gave up 17 offensive rebounds. Cole Aldrich, who started in place of Jordan, had 10 rebounds, but no other Clipper had more than four.

4. Jeff Green had one of his better efforts against the Thunder. Green had 19 points on seven-for-15 shooting.

5. Blake Griffin has been out for over three months and won’t play his first game until Sunday at Staples Center. But when he does return, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said he doesn’t expect his power forward to find his rhythm right away.

Griffin was recovering from a partially torn left quad and a broken right hand. He has finished serving his four-game suspension for punching a team assistant equipment manager.

“As far as getting rhythm with Blake, it’s not going to happen,” Rivers said. “We’re just going to go into the playoffs and stay alive. That’s how we’re going to get our rhythm. To think we’re going to have six days of practice and then we’re in great rhythm, that’s not going to happen.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: Twitter@BA_Turner