Clippers Coach Doc Rivers unhappy with report that team isn’t happy

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers grew perturbed when asked about a story that claimed there is discontent among his players.

In its weekly ranking of NBA teams, NBA.com quoted “someone who knows that team well” saying of the Clippers: “They don’t like each other.”

“I’m not getting into all this stuff,” Rivers snapped. “I’ve had teams that have won and they got along. I’ve had teams that have won and haven’t gotten along. That’s why it doesn’t matter.

“I mean, really, it’s so silly. To me, whenever I hear stuff that’s outside of us, I think it’s so silly that I usually don’t make any comment on it, because it usually gives people something to write about. So go write about it, is what I’m saying.”

During a game in Utah in November, tri-captains Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan got into an angry exchange with each other on the court and on the bench.

It was over a missed defensive assignment that upset Griffin.

All three said at the time that it was good for them to talk out their differences so they could move forward.

On Wednesday, Paul said there was no tension in their locker room.

“You see us in the locker room,” Paul said. “You know that’s not true. Yeah, we’re fine.”

Home cooking

The Clippers are in the midst of a nine-game homestand, the longest in franchise history and the longest of any NBA team this season.

Rivers said the plan is take advantage of playing at Staples Center during this stretch in which the Clippers are 3-1. The Clippers improved to 14-4 at home after defeating New York on Wednesday.

“Well, you’d like to win them all and we’re not going to do that,” Rivers said.

“But you just want to win home games. It’s so important to win home games and establish yourself there. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that after getting off to a slow start at home. But they are hard teams, hard games, and we just have to take them one at a time.”

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