Cage In Over His Head Against Olajuwon; Clippers Lose, 124-104

Forward Michael Cage of the Clippers will be able to tell his grandchildren about the time he played center against Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets.

Cage was filling in for injured center Benoit Benjamin when the Clippers met the Rockets Tuesday night at the Summit.

Cage is a rebounding machine at power forward, but he was no match for Olajuwon at center. Akeem the Dream turned the contest into a nightmare for Cage and the Clippers.

“It threw us out of sync to have me at center,” Cage said. “Akeem is a great player. He came into the league as a star and he hasn’t slowed down.”

Olajuwon scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Rockets crushed the Clippers, 124-104, in a contest played at the intensity level of a pickup game at Venice Beach.

Rocket forward Cedric Maxwell, a former Clipper, sympathized with his ex-teammates, who have lost three straight.

“It’s hard to play in this league without your starting center,” Maxwell said. “When they beat us last time (98-92 last month in Los Angeles), I thought they were on their way. But I guess it’s that Clipper zone , where something has to go wrong.

“I might have been one of the rats to get off the (Clipper) ship. It didn’t look good then, but I think they’re headed in the right direction with their new coach.”

The Clippers, however, took a detour here on the road to recovery.

“Houston played an overwhelming game,” Clipper Coach Gene Shue said after watching his team lose for the 17th time in its last 19 games. “They just came out and stomped us. Everything they were doing worked.

“Akeem was unbelievable. Certainly, it would have helped if we would have had Benjamin because they wouldn’t have been able to penetrate.”

How much did the Clippers miss Benjamin, who was in Los Angeles resting his injured left knee?

“I think we missed Ben a lot tonight,” said guard Larry Drew. “The man (Benjamin) is a force when he plays. We’ve shown what we can do when he’s out there. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t miss him.”

Said Clipper captain Mike Woodson, who scored 17 points: “It looked like we missed Benjamin a lot. But tonight I don’t think Ben would have helped. We were out of it from begining to end.”

The Clippers trailed by 7 points (34-27) at the end of the first quarter, but were outscored by 17 points (36-19) in the second quarter as the Rockets took a 70-46 lead at the break and turned the game into a rout

Guard Allen Leavell scored 14 points in the first half and finished with 18, and Olajuwon had 16 points and 7 rebounds in the first half.

The Rockets (22-16) lost interest after building a 33-point third-quarter lead, and they were booed by the sellout crowd of 16,611 after the Clippers (10-29) rallied to cut the final margin to 20.

Houston’s three former Golden State Warriors all played well against the Clippers.

Guard Eric (Sleepy) Floyd, who came to the Rockets along with center Joe Barry Carroll in the trade that sent Ralph Sampson to Golden State last month, scored 18 points and dished out 9 assists. Carroll came off the bench to grab a game-high 13 rebounds in 27 minutes. Purvis Short, another ex-Warrior, added 14 points, including 12 in the second quarter.

Guard Quintin Dailey provided what little offense the Clippers generated, scoring a team-high 18 points in 25 minutes off the bench.

Shue experimented with his lineup in the fourth quarter, taking a long look at guard Michael Phelps, who signed a 10-day contract last week.

Phelps was playing for the Wyoming Wildcatters when the Clippers signed him. He spent two years with the Seattle SuperSonics before they released him during training camp last fall.

Shue, who has been unhappy with the play of his point guards, Drew and Darnell Valentine, praised Phelps, who scored 7 points in 20 minutes off the bench.

“I think he (Phelps) fit right into the flow of the game, and he showed great intensity on defense,” Shue said. “I liked his defense. He got right up on the guy he was guarding.”

Phelps said he hopes to stick with the Clippers.

“All I can do is to go out and play the best I can and let them decide that (whether to keep him),” Phelps said. “I came out and played good full-court defense.”

Valentine, who was replaced by Drew in the starting lineup, said he can sense that Shue is unhappy with the play of the point guards.

“Everyone’s searching and trying to find something,” Valentine said. “When you’re not winning you have to do something.”

Clipper Notes

Dr. Tony Daly, the Clippers’ team physician, said Benoit Benjamin should be able to play Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Sports Arena. “He’s OK,” Daly said after examining Benjamin Tuesday morning. “He has tendinitis, or what we call jumper’s knee, and he’s in therapy. I think he’ll play Friday.” Benjamin, who has chronic tendinitis in his left knee, returned to Los Angeles after he was unable to practice Monday afternoon in San Antonio.