Clippers share milestone as Jamal Crawford gets to 15,000 career points

Around the locker room the game ball went, from one player’s hands to Jamal Crawford, then on to another Clippers teammate and back to Crawford.

It was a way to symbolize how Crawford had accumulated 15,000 points in his career, a threshold the shooting guard surpassed Monday night at Staples Center against the Utah Jazz.

“Somebody had to get you the ball,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said after his team’s 107-101 victory. “And then, of course, every time we passed it to [Crawford], he held it and shot it, which is good. That’s what you want him to do.”

Rivers was presumably joking about the last part. There’s no basket in the Clippers’ locker room.

If there was, Crawford, a 15-year NBA veteran and lifelong basketball junkie, might never emerge.

The Clippers were thrilled he shrugged off bruised ribs to get 19 points and five assists against the Jazz, pushing his career point total to 15,003. He reached the milestone on a floating jumper midway through the fourth quarter and received a standing ovation from the crowd when his achievement was noted on the scoreboard during a timeout.

Crawford, 34, is among 20 active players and 137 all-time to score 15,000 points.

“It’s a pretty good number,” Crawford said. “Coming into the NBA, you don’t really think about that. You think about establishing yourself and just trying to stick, honestly.”

He’s become a fixture in the league, a two-time sixth man of the year who can score points in a hurry. He’s averaged at least 18 points a game in two full seasons since moving to the bench during the 2009-10 season.

“To come in ice cold and make your first shot, I think that’s extremely hard,” Rivers said. “And he’s no young guy, either, and he still does it, so it’s very impressive.”

Crawford can do more than score, as he showed in the third quarter when he made a no-look bounce pass to Blake Griffin for a dunk.

“For him to accomplish something like that was awesome,” Griffin said of Crawford’s scoring feat. “Guys can say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t mean much. I wasn’t paying attention,’ or whatever they want to say, but it’s a pretty cool thing. I know us in the locker room were happy to take part in it and were all happy for him.”

Not a big deal

Rivers is tired of hearing about his team being outrebounded.

Yes, the Clippers have snagged fewer rebounds than their opponents in all four games, but then there is the shot discrepancy?

The Clippers took 22 more shots than the Oklahoma City Thunder and 20 more shots than the Sacramento Kings.

“When you take 20 more attempts, do you understand that the other team is going to have more rebounds?” Rivers deadpanned to reporters. “You do get that?”

When a radio reporter pressed Rivers about his team’s rebounding, the coach jokingly asked a group of student journalists from USC to explain the situation. The Clippers have taken an average of 14.3 more shots than their opponents while being outrebounded by an average of 9.3 per game.

Follow Ben Bolch on Twitter @latbbolch