Change Is No Help to Clippers

It had some markings of a milestone game. Jeff Martin started and Bo Kimble was benched for the first time, Charles Smith got a key to his hometown, and only 7,092 showed at 20,039 Brendan Byrne Arena Wednesday night to see the Clippers play the New Jersey Nets.

Then the Clippers messed everything up by playing an average game. It wasn’t so average in substance--they shot 38.8% in the first half and still built an 11-point lead early in the third quarter--but they lost, 118-105, hardly a unique outcome.

Showings like this have quickly become a Clipper tradition for 1990-91, when they have been known to clunk a game they should have won or suddenly go cold when it mattered most. In finishing a six-game trip on a most symbolic note, they did both.

More tradition: The Clippers went 1-5 on the swing and have left a skid mark that should stretch from here to the the Sports Arena. That’s where the team that lost at Minnesota and New Jersey and has dropped six of seven overall next gets Portland (22-2).

Against the Nets, winners of seven of 12 since a nine-point setback Nov. 21 in Los Angeles, the Clippers got the same results with a different mixture.

Kimble has been slumping and Martin’s play has been one of the few bright spots on the first extended trip of the season.

So what does Martin doing in a starting role? He goes zero for six with two points in 21 minutes.

Meanwhile, Kimble misses both his attempts in 10 minutes.

Coach Mike Schuler said he’ll stick with this rotation for the time being.

Despite continued woes of outside shooting, a problem that predates this trip by a couple years, the Clippers had a double-digit cushion just after intermission, the first time at 56-45 and the last at 60-50 with 8:04 left in the third quarter.

From there, New Jersey (9-14) took all of 2 1/2 minutes to cut the deficit to three, 65-62, and had pulled into a 77-77 tie by the end of the period.

It was still even as late as 86-86 with 8:43 remaining, but not for long. The Nets went on a 9-0 run that swung the momentum for good.

When the Clippers got back within 97-93 with 4:32 to play, New Jersey turned it up a notch again, holding the visitors to one field-goal attempt (a miss) in seven possessions. That included Mookie Blaylock twice picking Gary Grant clean in almost the identical spot on the left flat and converting it into a Net net.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with the outcome,” said Grant, who finished with 16 points, 16 assists against only four turnovers and seven rebounds in his best showing in weeks. “He (Blaylock) did a good job, but we were down by 10 at that point anyway.”

Actually, New Jersey’s lead was six on the first steal, a fact not lost on Blaylock.

“He wasn’t paying attention to me,” he said of Grant. “He just relaxed and dribbled the ball. There There was still a lot of time left on the clock.”

Blaylock did his damage in other ways, too--25 points on 11-of-19 shooting.

Derrick Coleman, the No. 1 draft pick clearly outplaying the rest of the rookie crop, spent most of his time inside and got 26 points and 17 rebounds.

Derrick Gervin, once cut by the Clippers, came off the bench for a career-high 27.

Gervin’s showing was just a point less than the entire Clipper bench combined. That’s Kimble’s at least for the immediate future, one which hasn’t left him too discouraged.

“Not at all,” he said. “Jeff has played terrific the last couple games, and that makes the team better. By changing roles, that doesn’t mean I can’t contribute. Everything is for the better on this team. Whether I’m in the starting lineup or not, that’s what it is all about.”

Clipper Notes

Charles Smith received the key to the city from his native Bridgeport, Conn., located about 90 minutes from here, during pregame ceremonies. The Clipper forward was cited for his volunteer community work, much underwritten by his Charles D. Smith Jr. Foundation and Education Center. “It was very unexpected,” he said. “When I got a phone call from my father telling me what they wanted to do, they more or less asked me if I wanted to do it. I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ It’s a great honor.”

Smith finished with a team-high 25 points, and Ken Norman had 24 points and 10 rebounds. . . . Gary Grant on his showing and the noticeable return, for a game at least, to a more aggressive offensive approach: “It felt good. If people watched me play the last couple games, you can tell the difference.”