Clippers Roll Over for Dallas, 118-86, and Rile Up Chaney

Clipper Coach Don Chaney blew up after the Dallas Mavericks blew out his team, 118-86, Tuesday night at Reunion Arena.

Chaney chewed out his team for five minutes behind closed doors. Passers-by outside the locker room could hear Chaney screaming.

“If you’re going to play like that you’re going to get blown out in every game,” Chaney told his team in a raised voice.

Said Marques Johnson, the Clipper captain, who had a team-high 21 points: “He’s the coach and he can be as upset as he wants to be . . . He was pretty upset. It’s not the worst I’ve seen him, but it’s in the top five.”

Chaney hadn’t calmed down by the time he emerged from the dressing room to meet with reporters.

“That was a horror show,” Chaney said. “They’re a good ballclub but we did not play aggressively. Had we played aggressively and lost, I would not be as (bleep). I thought we played selfish ball. That is something I would not think of this team as doing.

“He (Maverick Coach Dick Motta) went to his bench early. We could have lost by a larger deficit.

“We turned the ball over. We missed easy shots, layups. The reason for it was they outhustled us. They just took it to us. They went all over us on the boards. On the other hand, we played passive defense. We didn’t help each other. One guy would get beat and nobody moved. We’ve been working on that since preseason.”

The Clippers had played well in splitting their first two games, losing the opener to Sacramento, 107-106, last Friday, and coming back to beat Phoenix, 117-111, last Saturday.

“This was a totally different game,” Chaney said. “This is the problem with this team I can’t stand--it’s inconsistent. All of a sudden, it’s like we show up and we’re supposed to win. We have to play as if our lives depend on it every single night.”

Center Benoit Benjamin, who had equaled his career high by scoring 28 points in the win over Phoenix, wasn’t a factor against Dallas.

Matched against center James Donaldson, a former Clipper, Benjamin had just 6 points and 4 rebounds in 28 minutes. Benjamin made just 3 of 9 shots from the floor.

Donaldson had 11 points and 11 rebounds. The Mavericks outrebounded the Clippers, 54-33. Los Angeles had just 10 offensive rebounds.

Asked to assess the Clippers, Donaldson said: “They don’t look too well. Is that an understatement?”

Chaney said Donaldson intimidated Benjamin. The Mavericks double- and tripled-teamed Benjamin, forcing the Clippers to go outside. And they stood around on offense.

“When he’s not scoring he’s just not in the game; that’s his attitude,” Chaney said of Benjamin. “James Donaldson intimidated him. He beat him all over the court.

“I’m not going to see another game like that or I’ll pull the guys early. It was a collective thing, and everybody took turns in screwing up. I’m not going to be a part of that. I’ll go with the young guys if we’re going to screw up early like that and not be ready to play. And if they don’t work, then I’ll go out and get some players; somebody who will play hard and play consistent.”

If this were an election, the TV networks would have been predicting a landslide Dallas victory before the polls closed.

The Clippers made just 1 of 9 shots from the floor in the first five minutes of the game. Trailing 2-0, Dallas then outscored the Clippers, 10-0.

The Clippers made just 7 of 20 shots from the floor in the first quarter and trailed, 23-16. The Mavericks led, 51-33, at halftime. The Clippers never got any closer than 12 points in the second half.

The Clippers wound up shooting just 38.3% from the floor (31 of 81). Guard Larry Drew was 3 for 11, and forward Michael Cage made 4 of 10 shots.

“We played like we were all strangers,” Clipper forward Cedric Maxwell said. “We just played terrible. There’s not much to say about it. I can’t think of any cliches.”

The Mavericks, who ranked 21st in defense last season, said before the season that their main goal was to improve on defense.

So far, so good.

The Mavericks set four club records on defense in their season-opening 103-77 win over Utah last Friday. And Tuesday night, the Maverick defense smothered the Clippers, pressing and trapping them into oblivion.

“Dallas played good pressure defense all night,” said Clipper forward Kurt Nimphius, a former Maverick. “Dallas was going for the ball all the time, and we seemed to be waiting for the ball. I would hate to get stuck in the same trance we were in last year. I don’t enjoy getting our brains beaten out.”

Forward Mark Aguirre and guard Rolando Blackman scored 20 points each to lead the Mavericks (2-1). Detlef Schrempf came off the bench to score 18 points in 22 minutes.

“I know I’m not a great defensive player,” Aguirre said. “But I’m working hard on defense every minute I’m out there. I feel better when I do that.”