Blake Griffin commits a Flagrant 2 foul on the Bulls’ Taj Gibson on Thursday night in Chicago/Photo by Associated Press

Doc Rivers, like pretty much any NBA head coach, is not into moral victories. But he did like the way his team fought back Thursday at Chicago before losing 83-80 to the Bulls.

The Clippers were down by 14 points (57-43) when Blake Griffin was ejected from the game with 5:58 left in the third quarter because of a Flagrant 2 foul on the Bulls’ Taj Gibson.

The Clippers came all the way back to tie the game 66-66 with 7:18 left in the game before falling short.

Rivers liked his team’s mettle, even in defeat.

“I liked the way we fought back,” he said. “It was an ugly game. The last two minutes, we just didn’t play smart. The happy part of the end was we made a run. … I don’t like to lose.  We just didn’t close it out. The last two minutes, I want to be great.  Tonight, turnovers and fouls stopped us. We had a great shot to steal the game at the end.”

The Clippers had four of their 13 turnovers in the final 7:18. Three came on offensive fouls.