Clippers must put blowout loss behind them if they are to move ahead

In the stillness of their locker room inside Oracle Arena late Saturday night, the Clippers were left with plenty to ponder following the 144-98 defeat handed to them by the Golden State Warriors.

There was no denying two simple truths for the Clippers.

They can’t just let that monumental 46-point loss be erased from their memory banks so easily. But after they deal with the sting of that collective gut punch, the Clippers then have to push forward for their own sake.

Wallowing in self-pity after their eighth straight loss to the Warriors won’t solve any problems, Clippers players insisted. Instead, they said, they must come to grips with their shortcomings and prepare for the rest of the season.

“We’ve been in this position before,” forward Blake Griffin said in a low voice Saturday night after the team’s worst loss of the season. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had this bad of a loss on this stage.

“But, you know, no, I don’t have the answer. I think the answer, one of them, is just play harder. If you come out and you play your game and you miss shots but you’re playing your [hardest], I can live with that. If you come out and you’re passive, turn down shots, turn down your game, then we’re in trouble.”

The Clippers have a three-day break in the schedule to seek some answers before they play again at Phoenix on Wednesday. They didn’t practice Sunday, but will be back at work Monday and Tuesday.

The flight home from Oakland was the time the review the game. The next few days will be about getting ready for the Suns.

“You look at it and you realize what you can correct and what you could have done better,” Griffin said. “And, hopefully, there’s one thing we did well for one small period of the game. After that, you’re got to throw it away. You have to clear your mind of that because it doesn’t stop.”

In the eyes of Coach Doc Rivers, the team needs to understand its faults in the loss and then move ahead.

“You wipe it off because you have to,” Rivers said. “You got to get to the next game. But there’s things that we’ve got to do better. We were horrible on both ends.”

Oh, and by the way, the Clippers will see these very same Warriors again Thursday night at Staples Center in a second game of a back-to-back for both teams.

Soon enough, Rivers maintained, his team will get its mojo back.

“We’ll have it. I’m not that concerned by that,” he said. “It’s not like I’m thinking we’re not going to get it back or anything like that. We’re going to be fine. And I keep saying that. Right now we’re going through a lot of stuff. But we’ll be fine. I have no doubt about that.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner