Clippers face difficult road stretch with season hanging in the balance

Losing three consecutive games has put the Clippers in a bind as they chase a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Things will only get more complicated for the Clippers over the next week as they face four teams in playoff contention, all on the road.

But when a reporter suggested to Austin Rivers that the Clippers’ season is now dire considering the harrowing circumstances, he was not willing to buy that theory.

“I don’t want to reek desperation in the air,” Rivers said Sunday night after the Clippers lost to Portland at Staples Center. “I don’t want guys to feel tight out there, when they’re out there like, ‘If we don’t win, we’re not going to the playoffs.’ We just got to hoop, man. Just go have fun. We got to go have fun and compete and let things just come.

“You can’t ease into things anymore, cause there’s 13 more games and you got to understand that. We do have to have a sense of urgency. But at the same time, I don’t want us to be out there — I know I won’t, but I don’t want any other guys out there in panic mode like, ‘I got to play well.’ Let’s just go hoop.”

The Clippers are ninth in the Western Conference and they will face the team two games ahead of them for the last playoff spot, the eighth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday night at the Target Center.

Then the Clippers travel to Milwaukee for a game Wednesday night, to Indiana Friday night and finish at Eastern Conference-leading Toronto Sunday.

“Let’s take it game by game. I’m not looking at all 13 games. I’m only looking at Minnesota,” Rivers said. “I don’t know who we play after that. I don’t really care. We got to beat Minnesota and then after that, the next team, after that, the next team. It’s a big, tough stretch for us.

“This Minnesota game, that’s going to be a playoff game. I don’t want to hear the whole, ‘Oh, I’m tired.’ Everybody’s tired. I’m exhausted when I’m playing out there. So is everybody else.”

The Clippers have allowed 113.6 points per game in their last three defeats.

They will have to improve their defense when they face the Timberwolves, Bucks, Pacers and Raptors.

“It’s tough,” Lou Williams said. “It’s a lot of teams that’s playing very exceptional basketball. We hit a little slide that we didn’t have a lot of room for error. It’s a lot of teams that have a lot of room for error. It’s a lot of teams that’s playing above average basketball. So we knew that before now. Dire is one word, but at the end of the day, all we can do is go out and play as hard as we can.”

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Update: Timberwolves all-star center Karl-Anthony Towns leads the NBA in double-doubles with 59. Towns is averaging 20.7 points per game and 12.2 rebounds.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner