Photo: Sean M. Haffey, Staff / Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — Fourteen games into his 13th NBA season, LaMarcus Aldridge finds himself in uncharted territory.

He doesn’t know exactly how he got there, but he’s confident he’ll find his way out.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gone through (something like) this.…But I will figure it out,” Aldridge said of an offensive slump that’s bedeviled him and the Spurs as they’ve dropped five of their last six games, including a 116-111 decision to the Clippers on Thursday night.

The Spurs (7-7) have lost three straight, all coming on the three-games-in-four-nights’ West road trip that ended at the Staples Center with sixth man extraordinaire Lou Williams scoring nine of his team-high 23 points in the final four minutes, including 29-foot pull-up 3-pointer that gave the Clippers a 110-107 lead with 41.4 seconds left.

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But unlike Wednesday’s night’s game in Phoenix when they lost by 20 points to the 2-11 Suns, the Spurs left L.A. feeling better about themselves after they dug their way out of a 14-point hole in the first half to come within a play or two of beating Doc Rivers’ hot team, which improved to 9-5 with their third straight win.

“I was real proud of them. I thought they did a hell of a job,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We got better tonight in a lot of different ways. We keep having those periods where we’re making a few unnecessary fouls or screw up some defensive rotations and give up a seven- or eight-point run…But that’s part of the learning process for a young team that hasn’t played together.

“I’m just thrilled with them. The Clippers played a great game, and I’m glad for that because it made us better.”

Popovich also saw silver linings in Aldridge’s performance. Although the six-time All-Star and career 19.4 points per-game scorer finished with just 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting, he had a game-high 16 rebounds for his team-best seventh double-double and two blocks.

“L.A. was great tonight,” Popovich said. “He busted his butt. He does great things. He wasn’t struggling at all.”

Positive reinforcement aside, the truth is Aldridge is struggling big-time offensively, and he’s not shying away from that fact.

During the road trip, he averaged 10.0 points while shooting a putrid 30.7 percent from the field, this from a an All-Star who averaged 23.1 points last season while shooting 51.0 percent. Against the Suns, he finished with 6 points on 3 of 12. Against the Clippers, he hit 3 of 6 in the first quarter but was 0 for 9 the rest of the way.

The Spurs appreciate all of his other contributions, but they need him to score. They are 6-0 this season when he produces 20-plus points, but 1-7 when he scores 19 or less.

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Asked if he is pressing, “Aldridge said, “Nope…My shot felt good pre-game. It’s just trying to find a rhythm in the actual game has been my struggle. I felt fine. My shot has felt fine. It’s just making the rhythm carry over to the game.”

Until that happens, he said he’s going to continue to focus on making hustle plays while DeMar DeRozan, who had a game-high 34 points on 14 of 30 against the Clippers, and Rudy Gay, who scored 19 points on 8 of 12 after Popovich rested him in Phoenix, handle the scoring load.

“I try to do those things (rebounding, chasing down loose balls, etc.) every night, but lately I am definitely trying to do that more and let those guys do all the scoring,” Aldridge said. “Just try to protect the rim and try to be the guy that is trying to lead the defense a little bit and let those guys score.”

His teams appreciate Aldridge’s unselfish approach.

“One thing I know about L.A. is he’s going to give 110 percent every time,” said Bryn Forbes, who tied his season high with 17 points. “Even if his shots aren’t falling, he’s rebounding, he’s scrapping down there. You love having him on your team because he does all those things you are supposed to do.”

DeRozan said he’s confident Aldridge will break out soon.

“It’s going to come back around,” DeRozan said. “He’s playing extremely hard. Still, to his credit, he’s not letting his missed shots discourage him from doing all the other things. It’s going to come back around once his shot gets rolling”

Gay agreed.

“We all know what L.A. can do,” he said. “But even still, he’s being professional. He’s being the anchor on defense. He’s rebounding the hell out of the ball. He’s doing what he needs to do. Obviously, we would like for him to score more. But we can’t shut down when he doesn’t.”

Suffice it to say, nobody’s ready to push the panic button in the Spurs locker room when it comes to Aldridge’s slump or the team’s overall poor play of late.

“It’s November,” Gay said. “There is no reason to be down. We are all beating up on each other now (around the league). Obviously, this is not where we expected to be right, but a five-game winning streak will put us right back up top. That’s the optimism we have to have. We’ve had three straight tough losses, ones that hopefully won’t come back to bight us in the ass later. But all we can do is learn from this and make up for it somehow.”

Said DeRozan, “It’s tough to lose these games, but it is still early in the season. We would rather go through it now than later. As soon as we catch our stride, we will be fine. It sucks to lose, but I know for a fact that once we catch that stride, get healthy, get a rhythm going, understand how to play, how to win, we are going to be fine.”

Aldridge believes the same thing about himself.