Clippers look for ways to rest players amid busy schedule
At some point, Clippers Coach Doc Rivers mused Saturday afternoon, the schedule in March will take a toll on his team.
So at some point this month, Rivers has committed to resting some of his players.
He just doesn’t know when.
The Clippers played their seventh game in 11 days after facing the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday at Staples Center, two sets of back-to-backs and twice across two time zones.
The Clippers will play 18 games in 30 days this month.
“We hoped that we did a good job coming into the month where we were rested enough,” Rivers said. “Our issue was then we had all the injuries (to players) who need to play minutes. It’s just dicey. We are just trying to do the best we can.”
Blake Griffin missed 18 games recovering from right-knee surgery. Chris Paul missed recovering from surgery to repair a ligament tear in his left thumb.
Rivers said he’ll leave it up to his performance and medical personnel to determine when a player like Paul should rest.
“I’m the one with no answer,” Rivers said. “That’s for smarter people than me. I can tell you if Chris tells me he needs rest. I can tell you if one of our (performance) guys tells me if Chris needs rest. But other than that, I kind of leave that one alone and let someone come to me.”
Clippers seek practice time
With so many games being played this month, the Clippers are hard-pressed to get in practice sessions.
They haven’t had a practice this month and Rivers isn’t sure when the Clippers will.
They mostly make do with walk-throughs, shoot-arounds and film sessions.
“I think we’re going to try to fit in a practice here and there,” Rivers said. “We definitely do more in walk-throughs.”
Rivers has been down this road before, when the Clippers played 19 games in the first month-plus of the season that started on Oct. 27 at Portland.
“That stretch, I didn’t like how we handled that, honestly,” Rivers said. “Like, we didn’t do anything. And I thought eventually, even though we were winning, eventually it hurt us. And so we’re trying to do a better job this time just staying sharp.”
Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter @BA_Turner
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