Even Without Coleman, Nets Smother Clippers

The Clippers offered another installment of their year of living dangerously Monday night, but this time they had their reputations handed to them by a New Jersey team that was coming off a 44-point loss and was without Derrick Coleman.

There was no sigh of relief at the finish for the Clippers, who for the ninth time in their last 14 games trailed by at least 13 points.

Down by 15 late in the third quarter, they rallied but could not make up the deficit in a 105-90 loss to the Nets.

“We’re just not focused,” center Olden Polynice said. “Our team is too good to go through stuff like this, to have to come back in the second half. It’s not going to happen every time.”

It didn’t happen at Brendan Byrne Arena, the setting for Clippers’ worst loss to the Nets since March 1, 1988.

The Clippers had 12 assists and shot 37.5% against a team that improved to 12-20. They took advantage of Coleman’s absence by getting outrebounded, 51-45. They dropped to 1-2 on the longest trip of the season, the lone victory in overtime at Charlotte after a 15-point deficit.

Coach Mike Schuler cited selfish play. The notion of taking a team lightly also came up, as did work ethic.

“You have to give New Jersey credit,” Schuler said. “They simply outplayed us, outworked us, and were more aggressive. We let people who should not be factors in the game become factors in the game.”

Perhaps the Clippers took the Nets lightly?

“I would say that is very fair,” Schuler said. “You can tell them (the Clippers) what the other team is going to do, walk through (at shoot-around) exactly what will happen. But there certainly becomes a point in time where it’s up to the guys in uniform to go out and do it.”

Clipper players, at 17-17 a .500 team for the first time since Dec. 7, accepted part of that reasoning.

“Sluggish, and we stunk,” said Ron Harper, who had 16 points, second on the team to Danny Manning’s game-high 21.

Six Nets scored in double figures and three--Sam Bowie, Terry Mills and Chris Dudley--reached double digits in rebounding. The 90 points allowed was 17 better than their season average.

Some things weren’t so clear. Mookie Blaylock had 20 points and six assists in his first 36 minutes, but when he came out with 7:58 left, it was for good. Blaylock’s replacement, rookie Kenny Anderson, who has been renting space at the end of the bench by the week, then went the rest of the way.

New Jersey led by seven at the time. The Clippers trimmed that to four, first at 84-80 and then as late as 86-82 with 7:33 remaining. But the Nets went on a 17-4 run and coasted in.

“On a scale of one to 10, this was a 10 in terms of bouncing back from the Chicago loss,” New Jersey Coach Bill Fitch said. “We bounced back from the gutter.”

Or at least made room for company.

Clipper Notes

The Clippers have resumed negotiations on a cable television contract, the most likely deal coming with SportsChannel. Although happy with their new relationship with Channel 13, after years with Channel 5, they have been without a cable package all season and until recently had decided to go exclusively with the 40 games on commercial TV. The Clippers expect to have an answer on the second broadcast outlet within two or three weeks.

The Nets’ Derrick Coleman did not play because of a sore left ankle. . . . Doc Rivers was 11 of 11 from the free-throw line, making him 58 of 66 (87.9%) since the start of December. . . . Clipper assistant coach Mack Calvin, who had missed the previous three games after undergoing surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon, rejoined the team. He is expected to be in a cast for about two more weeks. “I’m not retiring,” joked Calvin, who had been injured while playing a pickup game. “I’m like Muhammad Ali. I’ll come back again. I may not play much more one-on-one, but I can still whip anybody in H-O-R-S-E.”

BIRD OUT: Larry Bird has been put on the injured list by the Boston Celtics. C3