LOS ANGELES — The themes were fairly consistent. After discussions about the Celtics with a number of people over five days in the warmth of Southern California, the general opinion is that team president Danny Ainge is doing the right thing with this deep rebuilding project.

But that doesn’t mean the constant changes aren’t a little crazy to watch from the outside.

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was asked if he could name five Celtics.

“Nope,” Bryant said with a laugh.

After a quick run-through of just some of the moves the C’s have made in the last couple of weeks, Bryant shook his head.

“Yeah, that’s strange to see,” he said, “but I guess it’s what they’ve got to do. What’s really weird is my kids, when we watch TV and we watch the games. They’ll see Kendrick Perkins and they’ll see Paul (Pierce) and see KG (Kevin Garnett) in different places, and they’ll be like, ‘Wait, what are they doing there?’ You know what I mean? It’s like really awkward. And it puts things in perspective, because I’m seeing things from their perspective.”

Bryant took particular interest in the late-December trade of Rajon Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks. He and Rondo had breakfast together when the Lakers were in Boston early last month, and it was widely assumed that Bryant was doing a little early recruiting on the point guard who becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

While Mavericks owner Mark Cuban expressed confidence his club can and will sign Rondo to a new deal, Bryant told the Herald he’s not about to cease working on getting him to LA.

“No way,” Bryant said. “I’m not done. I’m not stopping until he signs an extension.”

What Rondo, and Jeff Green (Memphis Grizzlies), left behind with the Celtics is a younger team that is still making changes.

With that lack of experience and rotation consistency, the losses figure to mount. The Celts lost their third straight Monday, falling to the Clippers. The C’s cut a 23-point deficit to just three, but they again failed to generate much in the last few minutes.

“At the end of games is where they struggle the most, because that’s what happens,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said last Friday. “I went through it in Orlando, and I went through it in Boston the first few years. I thought I could get any team to the fourth quarter. It’s them (expletive) fourth quarters that kill you. It’s hard to win those games. You have to have horses down the stretch.”

On Monday, the former Celts coach repeated his belief that things will work out in the long run for his old team.

“I think they’ve done the best as far as rebuilding,” Rivers said. “They have the most assets, for sure. Getting assets is hard, and now the harder step is turning those assets into actual players.”

After dealing with the Clippers, the Celtics will be taking some harder steps on this road trip.

The C’s will fly to Portland today and will meet the Trail Blazers tomorrow night. Following a game against the Nuggets in Denver on Friday night, the Celts have to deal with the team with the best record in the league, the Golden State Warriors, on Sunday night in Oakland, Calif.

None of those teams care that the Celtics are in a transition period. To a degree, the C’s are trying not pay attention to their own plight.

“There’s a lot that plays into it,” guard Evan Turner said. “You’re trying to win games, rebuild and develop. Development means going through tough times, especially with younger players. There’s stuff that they have to go through in order for them to learn, which can play into the win or loss of a game or winning and losing streaks.”

Turner has had some experience with this kind of thing, having been in Philadelphia for 54 games in the 76ers’ race to the bottom of the standings last season.

“This isn’t anything like it was with the Sixers,” he said. “They traded everybody (including Turner to the Indiana Pacers), and on top of that they’d just go and get new players every 10 days. So this is sweet compared to that. When we make trades this year and get new players, I’ve actually heard of them. In Philly, they’d bring somebody in, and you just never heard of the person in your life. They’d introduce me to them, and I’d just go about my business. This is kind of typical. I can deal with these type of trades. The other stuff was crazy. I guess this is new to a lot of guys here, but this is small compared to what I was going through last year.”

And, hey, at least Turner can name five Celtics.