Clippers seek to improve rebounding

The Clippers were outrebounded by 15 during their 116-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

And Coach Doc Rivers was even more unhappy about the fact that his team gave up 17 offensive rebounds.

His big men, center DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, did their job for the most part, with Jordan getting 12 rebounds and Griffin 11.

But no one else on the team had more than the four rebounds Matt Barnes collected.

For the season, the Clippers are averaging 42.6 rebounds per game, tied for 19th in the leaguewith the Lakers.

“We’ve got to rebound better as a group,” Rivers said. “And it’s not on the bigs. It’s on everybody.”

Rivers said the guards have fallen short in stopping opponents’ dribble-penetration, which has made it more difficult on their defense and ability to rebound.

“A lot of it is the guards are getting beat off the dribble,” Rivers said. “And when they get beat off the dribble, the bigs are in rotation. It’s not just as simple as the bigs aren’t rebounding. The bigs are rebounding. The bigs are in help half the game. We’ve got to do a better job of controlling the dribble. If we do a better job of controlling the dribble, then our bigs are under the basket rebounding where they should be.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter:@BA_Turner