LOS ANGELES – Doc Rivers and Paul Pierce have done almost everything in basketball together. They’ve won a title together. They’ve led locker rooms together. They’ve spent years together.

But, until now, they’ve never done this.

Rivers and Pierce are teaming up for a competition against a foe that’s undefeated – aging. And, honestly, they don’t know how they’re doing.

“I’ve never had to do this with Paul,” Rivers said before Sunday’s game. “And I don’t know if we’re doing it the right way or not.”

The plan – a combination of limited minutes and days off – hasn’t netted great results. Pierce has career lows in virtually every meaningful offensive category – points, field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage.

And certainly, the drastic cut in minutes has affected Pierce’s rhythm.

Two years ago in Brooklyn, Pierce played 25 minutes or more 55 times in the regular season. Last season in Washington, he did it 42 times.

This year with the Clippers, he’s played more than 25 minutes only four times.

Following a night off Friday against the Lakers, Pierce returned from his “two-day vacation,” as Rivers put it, to start against the Bulls.

And like he has plenty of times this season, Pierce didn’t look quite right.

He missed his first six shots – including five 3s – on his way to his 12th game this season without a made field goal.

Before this year, that happened just eight times in the previous 1,250 games.

But, that’s the part of aging the Clippers can’t defeat. They can hope for a better outcome when the moments are bigger.

And, for Pierce, that’s where the rest will hopefully pay off.

“You’ve got to be healthy during the playoffs. If you want a shot at winning the title, you’ve got to be healthy. If you see Golden State, they were the most healthy team in the playoffs all last year,” Pierce said. “…Health is important, especially when you have a championship-caliber team, which I believe we do.”

But it hasn’t been easy, and there’s no guarantee it’ll get easier. Time stops for no one – not even Hall of Famers.

“It has to be (hard for him),” Rivers said. “You could see he didn’t have great rhythm tonight and he didn’t practice and he takes the days off. Again, it’s an imperfect science. I think at the end of the year it will be great for him because now the rhythm will start and he’ll start playing, but I really don’t know.

“I’m just trying to do the best with him so we can preserve him.”

Hack-a-DJ backfires

After center DeAndre Jordan sank four big free throws after being intentionally fouled last week in Atlanta, the big man hit 3 of 4 during a stretch Sunday that turned the Clippers’ lead from comfortable to insurmountable.

“I’m getting more and more confident,” Jordan said. “I know every night it’s probably going to happen, they will do it. it works sometimes, it doesn’t work at times. I just have to be ready for it whenever it happens. It happens in the second quarter now, so it’s routine.”

In the first 31 games of the season, Jordan was 39.4 percent from the line. Since then, he’s making 49.2 percent.

“That takes a strategy away, at least momentarily,” Rivers said. “Oh, it will be back next game, don’t worry about that. But it does, in each game when he does it, it takes that one strategy away and players get mad when you foul. I’ve always thought that when we do it and they make the free throws, they’re mad at you. They don’t like doing it to begin with and then when guys start making them, they’re really mad at you because they’re saying, ‘See, we could have played defense.’”

Notes

The NBA’s investigation into Blake Griffin’s incident in Toronto should yield a punishment early this week. Griffin is out at least 4-6 weeks because of a broken bone in his right hand. … The Clippers will sign Jeff Ayres to a second 10-day contract.

Contact the writer: dwoike@ocregister.com