Despite a spotty preseason, Doc Rivers believes in his team

The Clippers have played uneven basketball this exhibition season, but that hasn’t stopped their coach from believing he has a special team.

The Clippers are 2-5 in the preseason and have given up more than 100 points in each of their losses, yet Coach Doc Rivers remains confident.

“I know that we have a chance to be really good,” Rivers said after the Clippers defeated Phoenix, 108-105, Wednesday night. “I think we’ve played this whole preseason in stretches and spurts. But we haven’t sustained an entire game yet. I know it’s in us.

“I see it in practice. Hopefully we are ready for Game 1.”

The Clippers, who didn’t practice Thursday, play their last exhibition game Friday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. The Clippers open the regular season at home on Oct. 30 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Rivers said he was undecided on how he’ll use his key players against the Trail Blazers.

“I think we’re going to have to judge on what they do,” Rivers said. “That’s one of those coaches’ games, where you look down and you see who is on the floor. You want to make sure your guys are [playing] against their best guys.”

Different schedule?

If it were up to Rivers, teams would play four exhibition games rather than eight.

“I think if you play four preseason games and start the season a week earlier with the same amount of games, now you can stretch the season,” Rivers said. “You don’t have as many back-to-back [games].”

However, Rivers said he doesn’t think it’s “very realistic” to shorten the current 82-game regular season schedule, which is something LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki have suggested.

If the NBA opened the regular season earlier in the fall, Rivers said, it would eliminate the likelihood of teams playing four games in five nights, and that would improve the quality of play.

“I think the fans would appreciate it. It would be better basketball,” Rivers said.

“We have some of these TV games where guys have played five games in eight nights, and they’re on the road, and the game looks terrible because they’re tired.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner