Preview: Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs

The Clippers will host the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center.

The Clippers (35-19) are in sixth place in the Western Conference, half a game ahead of the seventh-place Spurs (34-19).

This will be the teams’ final meeting this season. The Spurs had won four in a row against the Clippers before Jan. 31, when the Clippers beat the Spurs on the road, 105-85, while outrebounding them, 56-36.

The Clippers will be playing without Blake Griffin, who had surgery Feb. 9 to remove a staph infection from his right elbow. The Clippers said Griffin will be out at least three weeks while recovering.

The Spurs are not reporting any injuries entering Thursday’s game.

The Clippers had won two games in a row before the All-Star break, which extended from Feb. 12-18 for the team. They are 2-1 without Griffin so far, having wins over Dallas and Houston after losing to Oklahoma City.

DeAndre Jordan has stepped up in a major way in Griffin’s absence. The Clippers’ star center has had three 20-20 performances in his career, each of them this month.

In the team’s last two games without Griffin, Jordan had 22 points and 27 rebounds in the Clippers’ 115-98 win over Dallas on Feb. 9, and 24 points and 20 rebounds in the team’s 110-95 win over Houston on Feb. 11.

“It was huge,” Griffin said of Jordan before Wednesday’s practice. “He’s played really, really well. And I think it was great for us, that last game in Dallas, especially with us having three starters out, how we played with the same intensity no matter what.”