Clippers Go Shooting for 5 in a Row but End Up Misfiring in 101-83 Loss

Clipper Coach Jim Lynam was off the bench more than usual during Tuesday night’s game against the Seattle SuperSonics, trying to talk the ball into the basket on nearly every shot the Clippers attempted.

“One time,” Lynam would mutter as the shots took flight. “One time.”

By the end of the game, Lynam had almost talked himself hoarse. But it still didn’t help many of the Clipper shots fall in a dismal 101-83 loss in front of 5,612 fans at the Tacoma Dome, 30 miles outside Seattle.

Perhaps the Clippers left their shooting prowess back in Seattle, where they had spent two days practicing. They shot just 41.2% from the field and scored their fewest points of the season.

As a result, the Clippers saw their four-game winning streak end and their record fall to 18-22. They return to the Sports Arena tonight against the Houston Rockets reeling instead of rolling.

The Clippers’ cold shooting was epitomized by point guard Norm Nixon, who made just 1 of 8 shots and finished with two points. Nixon’s basket, a baseline jumper, came with 10:09 left in the third quarter.

It wasn’t long after that when Lynam benched Nixon in favor of Bryan Warrick, who finished with seven points but was equally ineffective.

Afterward, Nixon was perplexed by his benching. After all, it is something that has rarely happened during his eight NBA seasons.

“Yeah, I was wondering about it a little,” he said. “Go ask the coach. You always think you can play out of it (a shooting slump). But tonight it just seemed like we were out of sync from the start.”

Lynam said he wasn’t punishing Nixon for cold shooting. If that were the case, Lynam would have had to bench half the team. Except for Derek Smith, who made 8 of 15 shots and led the club with 22 points, all the Clippers took turns missing.

Marques Johnson scored 12 points but made only 6 of 15 shots. Sixth man Junior Bridgeman made 4 of 10 shots and finished with 11 points. Bill Walton, playing only 21 minutes, had six points on 3-of-7 shooting.

In explaining why he benched Nixon in the second half, Lynam said: “It obviously wasn’t a game we were going to win. If we had gotten back to about six points or something, I would’ve brought him back. But with a game tomorrow, I decided to keep Norman out.”

Ditto for Walton, who sat next to Nixon and brooded during the late stages of Tuesday’s loss.

“They (the SuperSonics) deserve a lot of credit for the win, rather than us playing poorly,” Walton said. “We were in it early, fell behind and then couldn’t catch up. So, they put us away several times.”

Indeed, the SuperSonics were able to hold off every brief Clipper run by dictating the tempo. Seattle likes to play a methodical, half-court game and stop its opponent from running, which is exactly what it did in winning its third straight game. Eighteen Clipper turnovers didn’t hurt the SuperSonics either.

Forward Tom Chambers led Seattle with 24 points--18 in the first half--while guard Gerald Henderson added 21 and four steals. Jack Sikma and Ricky Sobers added 14 and 12 points, respectively.

“More than our cold shooting, we never really got into our type of game,” Bridgeman said. “In the second half, we started to get a little momentum, but it didn’t last long. We never got going consistently.”

Bridgeman’s explanation was the one repeated throughout the Clipper locker room.

Said Smith: “There are going to be nights like this when nobody shoots well, and that’s what happened tonight. But give them credit. They wouldn’t let us run.”

The closest the Clippers came to catching the SuperSonics in the second half was nine points (85-76) with 6:34 left when Warrick made a layup. Shortly after that, Seattle took command again and Lynam symbolically threw in the towel by inserting seldom-used Jay Murphy and Lancaster Gordon into the lineup.

Even that drastic move didn’t help the Clippers’ sputtering offense. The team was only able to make three free throws the final 4:13 of the game.

Clipper Notes

Following tonight’s game against Houston at the Sports Arena, the Clippers play only two games in the next week--Saturday against Dallas at the Sports Arena and next Tuesday against the Lakers at the Forum. . . . Tuesday’s game was the front end of the 13th time the Clippers have played games on consecutive nights. Before Tuesday, they were 4-8 in first games, 6-6 in second games. . . . Harvey Catchings, who missed Saturday’s win over Golden State with chronic heel problems, returned to the lineup Tuesday. . . . The roof of the Tacoma Dome was partly built from trees from Mount St. Helens. The SuperSonics will play two more games here . . . Going into Tuesday’s game, Seattle Coach Lenny Wilkens had won 1,001 games.