Clippers’ week in review

The Clippers won two of their three games last week, beating Utah (107-101) and Portland (106-102), but losing to Golden State (121-104).

The Clippers played the Warriors last year in the first round of the playoffs, the Clippers winning in a hard-fought seven-game series. When the teams met Nov. 5, Doc Rivers called the Clippers “soft.”

The Clippers trailed by as many as 29 points and Blake Griffin had only one rebound and one free throw attempt. Here’s what Rivers had to say of his team’s performance: “What we lacked was heart.”

After that game, the Clippers had a team meeting, something Jamal Crawford acknowledged was a bit “concerning” so early in the season.

The Clippers played much better against Portland on Saturday. JJ Redick brought his nearly 11-week-old son to his first basketball game, and the proud papa got a bit emotional. Here’s what JJ had to say of the experience: “I could have gone 0 for 30 tonight and it still would have been one of the top three or four days of my life.” Redick actually scored 30 points, making 11 of his 13 shots, his best game yet of the season.

In that same game, Blake Griffin played despite having flu-like symptoms. After the game, he said he felt like he was going to die out there. Here’s what Chris Paul had to say about his teammate’s effort: “Without him, we don’t win this game.”

Last week, the Clippers’ new owner, Steve Ballmer, hired Gillian Zucker as the team’s president of business operations. Ballmer said he interviewed between 25-30 people for the job, but after meeting with Zucker for an hour, he was so impressed by her that he quickly arranged to chat with her again over a four-hour dinner.

When Zucker was introduced to the Clippers’ press on Saturday, she didn’t waste any time in making a bold statement -- and taking a bit of a shot at the Lakers. Said Zucker: “I think the Clippers are well on their way to becoming Los Angeles’ team.”

This week, the Clippers play San Antonio on Monday, then Phoenix on Saturday. Here are the main things to look out for:

-- Will the Clippers improve on rebounding? They have been outrebounded in each of their games so far, and currently have the worst rebounding average of all 30 NBA teams.

-- Also, will Griffin return to dominating inside instead of relying so much on his jumper? Griffin greatly improved his jumper over the summer, but Rivers worries that he’s relying on it a bit too much now.