Doc Rivers has said that the Los Angeles Clippers will need to rely on their defense to keep them in contention.

The Clippers lost 105-91 to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, leaving them sixth in the Western Conference.

The head coach told reporters: "I'm hoping for six or eight weeks from now our defense will allow us to stay in the game. From the first quarter you could see we didn't have it offensively, everybody was kind of missing shots and didn't have any rhythm.

"When we don't have any pace from anybody you know that's not a good sign. We gave ourselves a fighting chance so that's what you want when things aren't going well, but what I want to get to, though, is to be able to win a game against a great team when you don't have your game and I thought we had a chance to do that tonight, but we kind of let go of the rope."

The Clippers host the Sacramento Kings tomorrow.