Clippers take the low road

After playing an NBA-high 18 road games, the Milwaukee Bucks took full advantage of the road-weary Clippers.

Richard Jefferson scored 22 points and Luke Ridnour had 18 to help Milwaukee beat the Clippers, 119-85, on Saturday night.

“We certainly don’t want to feel sorry for anybody else’s schedule after what we’ve been through,” Milwaukee Coach Scott Skiles said after his team’s 11th home game.

Playing their fourth road game in five nights, the Clippers missed their first six shots while the Bucks made 11 of their first 14.

The Clippers trailed 16-10 to start the game, and then Milwaukee outscored them, 46-22, to take a 62-32 halftime lead.

“This is the biggest win we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Andrew Bogut, in his fourth season with the Bucks. “So, it’s nice to be actually sitting [on the bench] in the fourth quarter for once.”

Al Thornton scored 20 points for the Clippers in their worst loss of the season.

“Everybody is tired,” Thornton said. “Everybody in the league has back-to-back games. We need to find it deep down and be able to compete better than that.”

Zach Randolph, the Clippers’ leading scorer at 22.9 points, was held to four points. He missed his first seven shots and was scoreless until making a hook with 9:23 left in the third quarter.

The Clippers had played two consecutive overtime games in three nights, including Friday night’s 117-109 double-overtime win over Indiana.

“It definitely took a toll on us,” Randolph said. “We have the most minutes in the league as starters, so it has been tough.”

Baron Davis, the team’s second-leading scorer at 18.4 points, missed seven of nine shots and had 10 points. Steve Novak had nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Michael Redd had 14 points, while Luc Mbah a Moute, Bogut and Dan Gadzuric had 12 apiece for Milwaukee, which has won four of five.

The game was the first in a stretch in which Milwaukee plays seven of 10 at home.

Redd missed 14 games early in the season, and Jefferson said he thought the Bucks were starting to play better now that their leading scorer was back in the lineup.

“People don’t understand, they talk about the road games, but we [also] were in China for the preseason,” he said, referring to two exhibition games the Bucks played in October. “Now, we’re starting to get healthy and things are starting to come around.”

It was the 14th road game for the Clippers, but nine have come in 11 December contests.

Milwaukee dominated from the opening tip, making 15 of its first 20 shots, using a 21-5 run to close the opening quarter for a 37-15 lead.

“We knew their starters played a lot of minutes” against Indiana, Ridnour said. “We knew it would be an energy game, and we came out with more energy than them and jumped on them from the start.”

It was Milwaukee’s second consecutive blowout victory. The Bucks beat the New York Knicks, 105-81, on Friday night.