LOS ANGELES — Warriors coach Mark Jackson said it didn’t matter that friend and former broadcasting partner Jeff Van Gundy voiced support for a contract extension during the telecast of the playoff opener.

Jackson said Sunday he doesn’t listen to the chatter about his job status that persists despite the Warriors’ completing a 51-win regular season and continuing to win in the postseason.

Jackson’s players, meanwhile, have heard the rumblings and are rallying together to help change the tone of the national conversation. Their latest example of such was a 109-105 victory Saturday in Game 1 of a first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Warriors’ Andre Iguodala said after the win that he heard an ESPN report that Jackson “is going to be gone.”

“We’re trying to save our coach,” Iguodala said. “Every game is pressure for us.”

Stephen Curry supported the notion that the Warriors have taken it upon themselves as players to take care of business in the playoffs so that talk about Jackson’s job security would subside.

“It was more the message along those lines that we as players can control the vibe of what’s going on,” Curry said before practice at UCLA. “If we’re losing and not playing the way we’re supposed to, obviously people will start looking for answers and the head coach will get most of that blame. But if we go out and play 100 percent every night, take advantage of every opportunity out in front of us, there’s nothing they can say about it.”

On the eve of Game 2 at Staples Center, Curry was among a majority of Warriors players who attended Easter service at Jackson’s Southern California church and heard their coach preach. Curry said doing so helped team unity and that Jackson’s faith has allowed the coach to keep perspective.

“All the while, we’re just trying to win, and our record’s gotten better every year,” Curry said. “That’s the standard of good coaching to me. I don’t know what else you’d want from him. It’s just kind of unfortunate that that’s the tone that this season has taken when he’s done so much good.

“He’s been able to deal with all this negative talk and criticism … for so long this season because of where his focus is and where his faith’s at, so I think that’s huge.”

Said Jackson: “Like I said before, I’m going to be fine. It’s going to turn out fine.”

While the Warriors were all smiles with the pressure on the Clippers to win Game 2 before the best-of-seven series shifted to Oracle Arena, Clippers coach Doc Rivers spoke of his team needing to better execute defensive coverages that broke down in Game 1.

Although Curry was limited to 14 points while giving up the ball on double-teams, David Lee and Klay Thompson were able to capitalize on their high-percentage shots.

“They’re going to make adjustments, but we’re going to make adjustments, too,” Jackson said.

Clippers players stopped short of calling Monday’s game a must-win.

“We feel like it’s not a team you’re going to sweep, obviously,” Clippers guard Jamal Crawford said. “You know, they’re a good team. They won 50-plus games (as a team) in the Western Conference.”

But Rivers, who said he needed to coach better, pointed to just how important Game 2 was to his team.

“I think we all know we didn’t play that well,” Rivers said. “And Golden State played well, but they can play better, too. And we have to be prepared for them to play a lot better for us to win the game.

“We need to win. There’s no doubt about it. You don’t want to go down 0-2 going to Golden State. There’s no doubt about that.”

For more on the Warriors, see the Inside the Warriors blog at ibabuzz.com/warriors. Follow Diamond Leung on Twitter at twitter.com/diamond83.