Struggling Clippers lose to Nets, 101-100, on buzzer-beater

Reporting from Newark, N.J. — In the end, there were so many reasons why the Clippers didn’t deserve the victory they would end up losing to the New Jersey Nets, 101-100, on a last-second three-pointer by Jordan Farmar.

And in the process of the defeat that left the Clippers 2-3 on their six-game trip, All-Star power forward Blake Griffin suffered a mild left ankle sprain after a collision with Kris Humphries.

That just added to pain the Clippers seemed to heap on themselves.

They fell behind by 18 points in the third quarter to a Nets team that had won just 12 games going in and was playing on the second night of back-to-back games.

The Clippers’ lack of defense surfaced yet again for most of the game, this time allowing the Nets, through three quarters, to score 80 points while shooting 53.3% from the field and 50% (nine for 18) from three-point range.

The Clippers for the second consecutive game had egregious fourth-quarter technical fouls, one on Mo Williams with 2:53 left and the Clippers trailing by two points and a double technical on Kenyon Martin and Shelden Williams with 2:10 left and the Clippers again trailing by two points.

“We [keep] putting ourselves in these situations,” said Chris Paul, who had 22 points, including two free throws with 8.9 seconds left that had given the Clippers a 100-98 lead. “There is no reason for us to get down to this team by 18. Once again, it’s our defense. That’s what happens every night. We can’t do that.”

Just as they did Monday night in Minnesota, the Clippers played suffocating defense in the fourth quarter.

They limited the Nets to 18.8% shooting, forcing them to miss 13 of their 16 shots.

The Nets scored only 21 points in the fourth, 14 from the free-throw line.

“We don’t have enough experience to do stuff like that, wait to start playing defense,” said Paul, who also had 10 assists. “And then when you do that, stuff like that happens. People at home watching the game on [NBA] League Pass, they are salivating for something like that to happen, and it usually turns out that way, where a guy hits a shot like that and wins the game.”

Of the three field goals the Nets made in the fourth quarter, the game-winner, with 0.2 of a second left, was the three-pointer by Farmar, the former Lakers and UCLA star.

“I’m looking at that last shot,” Paul said. “If it hits the rim, bounce out, boom! We got out of here with one.”

Instead, the Clippers are struggling.

They dropped to 7-8 since Chauncey Billups went down because of a season-ending left Achilles’ tendon injury on Feb. 6.

And despite 28 points and 17 rebounds from Griffin and a season-high 24 points from Randy Foye, the Clippers lost a game they probably deserved to lose.

“We’ve got to stop putting ourselves in that position,” Griffin said. “We’ve got to play with a sense of urgency like we did in the fourth. We can’t just rely on offense and then defense in the fourth to get us back in it.”