LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Clippers have won six straight games and eight of their past nine, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the Western Conference standings.

"I didn't know we were seventh," coach Doc Rivers said after the Clippers beat the Magic 114-86 on Wednesday. "I literally did not know that. You just got to win. You got to play every night. That's the conference we're in. We're in a hard conference. A good record in our conference doesn't mean a lot because everyone has one. The good news is we're seventh, but my guess is we're two or three games out of being No. 1 and we have over 60 games to catch them."

Rivers' math is correct. Despite being the seventh seed, the 13-5 Clippers are just two and a half games behind the Golden State Warriors (15-2) for the top seed in the West and first place in the Pacific Division. But there's not going to be much movement when the top eight seeds in the West have won 36 straight games coming into Wednesday night.

"When you have numbers like that in the West, you have to win games," Rivers said. "I don't know what we've won, but I don't think we've changed positions much in the West."

That's what makes this stretch of games so important for the Clippers. Sure, it's Charmin soft and littered with wounded and/or below .500 teams they should beat, but these were also the kind of games the Clippers were losing earlier as they stumbled to a 5-4 record to start the season. Maybe it was going on the road for two weeks. Maybe it was playing against bad teams. Maybe it was just seeing their open shots falling, but the Clippers are a different team now. Not only are they winning games, but they are winning by an average margin of close to 20 points per game.

"For whatever reason, this year we have been judged on style points," Rivers said. "If we win by 30 then it's something. The way I'm looking at us, I just want to get better. I think we're better than we were earlier in the year, and I think we're going to keep getting better. I think our offense is so much better. We were missing open shots before and we're making open shots now. Once you start making open shots then the defense has to react to that and it allows other things to happen for you."

The Clippers have yet to post what could be classified as a signature win this season after losing to Golden State, Memphis, San Antonio and Chicago and beating Oklahoma City and Houston while those teams were ravaged by injuries. But they have started to resemble the team that won 57 games last season and was two wins shy of the franchise's first conference finals berth.

Before going on their road trip last month they were having trust issues on both sides of the ball. They knew what the game plan was, but each player was trying to make the key basket or key stop on his own and not trusting each other to handle their responsibilities.

"We were not doing anything right," J.J. Redick said. "Even the games that we win against Oklahoma City or the Lakers, there was a lot of mistakes. One of the things we've done on both ends is we're starting to make the connecting plays and that's what builds trust where early on it was 'my play and this guy is messing up.' Now we have each other's backs and we're connecting, and the trust we were talking about is there."

For the Clippers, it's all about making the extra pass that fuels their offense. Redick recalls a play Monday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves when Jordan Farmar hit the post to Glen Davis, made the cut, got the ball back and could have made a layup but instead threw it to an open Spencer Hawes in the corner for a 3. Those were the kind of plays that the Clippers simply weren't making through the first nine games of the season and are making now in their last nine games.

Just the fact that Redick has had 20 or more points in back-to-back games is an indicator to Rivers of how well the Clippers are playing offensively.

"When J.J. is getting shots we're having great ball movement," Rivers said. "When he's not getting shots it means we're not moving the ball well. Jamal [Crawford] can get his own shots. J.J. is dependent on ball movement."

Rivers will be the first to admit the Clippers are far from a finished product. They're winning games and playing better, but he knows they're doing what they're supposed to do and collecting wins they'll need at the end of the season.

"We're winning the games we should win honestly, which is very important, especially in the West," Rivers said. "The West is hard. Every night, every team in the West knows they need to win the game and usually that starts after Game 50 when people start looking at the games, but it has already started. Everyone is trying to win because we don't know what the number is to get in. You have to win every game you can."