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Doc Rivers dismisses notion of 'Clippers curse' following Griffin, Paul injuries

Kyle Terada / USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Clippers were handed a golden opportunity on Monday after it was announced that Steph Curry would be sidelined at least two weeks with an MCL sprain. Los Angeles immediately looked like plausible candidates to reach their first Conference Finals in franchise history with their likely second-round opponent missing their best player.

Less than 36 hours later, and the Clippers look more likely to get bounced in the first round following the season-ending injuries of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, prompting many to question whether the team is in fact cursed.

Head coach Doc Rivers quickly dismissed the notion on Tuesday, claiming that his team is not cursed, they've just faced bad luck.

"Is it the Billy Goat? I don't know what it is. Babe Ruth never played for us," Doc Rivers told ESPN's Arash Markazi. "We didn't trade him. There's no jinx there. I don't know. It's bum's luck three years in a row. What can you do? All you can do is keep going. This one was worse than all of them by far basketball-wise. Socially, you can make the case the the other one was. I get down for like five minutes and I was last night but you wake up in the morning and you feel like we're going to find a way and it's my job to get them to feel like I feel and if we do that I think we'll have a fighting chance."

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