DeAndre Jordan/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers

Coach Doc Rivers will likely go out of his way again this season to downplay the significance of DeAndre Jordan’s poor free-throw shooting. We can’t blame Rivers for that. If he openly criticizes his big man, that could create an adverse reaction.

Jordan, of course, is a terrific defensive player and can make a big difference in a given game in that regard. But when Jordan is having a very poor night at the free-throw line, it does seem to bother him, and that’s not good.

Interestingly, he shot a career-best 52.5 percent in the 2011-12 season. That followed efforts of 38.5, 37.5 and 45.2 percent in his first three seasons, respectively. Once he made that leap to 52.5, one would have thought he would be on the upswing from there.

Didn’t happen. He shot 38.6 percent in 2012-13 and 42.8 percent this past season. Opposing teams, at times, fouled him on purpose.

Jordan said during the recent media day that free throws were one of the elements of his game he worked on during the off-season. Now, it’s no big deal that he missed both of his free-throw attempts Tuesday in the team’s exhibition defeat to Golden State because they were just that – two measly attempts.

But this is not a situation to downplay. Jordan’s team needs him to improve. Keep in mind that the Clippers now have Spencer Hawes as the backup to Jordan. Hawes, who is 7-foot-1, is a career 70.3 percent free-throw shooter over seven seasons. He shot 78.3 percent in 2013-14. The point being, don’t be surprised if Hawes is in there during crunch-time of games in which Jordan is having a difficult time at the line.

The Clippers’ next exhibition game is Sunday at Portland at 6 p.m. (on Prime Ticket).