NBA looking ahead: San Antonio at Clippers, Monday night

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers directs Chris Paul from the sideline during a game against the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 4.

By Ben Bolch

Dec. 14, 2013 12 AM PT

SAN ANTONIO AT CLIPPERS: 7:30 p.m. Monday. TV: Prime Ticket.

Championship coaches have become a rarer commodity in the NBA than superstar players. San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and the Clippers’ Doc Rivers are two of the four active coaches to win a title, with Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Dallas’ Rick Carlisle completing the elusive club. Popovich’s four championships give him as many as the other three combined. The Spurs are again near the top of the Western Conference standings, which puts them directly in the cross hairs of a Clippers team that has beaten conference stalwarts Oklahoma City, Houston and Golden State.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

NBA looking ahead: San Antonio at Clippers, Monday night

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