Weiss Benches Four Starters in Clipper Loss

Clipper Coach Bob Weiss had seen enough.

Weiss benched starters Ron Harper, Mark Jackson, Stanley Roberts and Loy Vaught at the start of the second half after the Clippers fell behind the San Antonio Spurs by 23 points in the first half of Monday night’s 110-98 loss before a crowd of 16,011 at the Alamodome.

“If we were going to lose, we were going to lose with enthusiasm,” Weiss said. “We’re not playing like we think we can win. We had to go with guys that had life.

“You’ve just got to come and play every night and we’re just going to play that way. We’ll find them. This is a game. This isn’t a job. We’re lucky they pay us to do it, but . . .”

The Clippers (4-5), who opened their three-game Texas trek with a 22-point loss at Houston Saturday night, didn’t earn their paychecks for the second consecutive game.

Playing their fifth consecutive game without leading scorer Danny Manning, sidelined with a cracked left ring finger, the Clippers didn’t play defense, looked disorganized on offense and got outrebounded by the Spurs, 46-36.

The Spurs’ Dennis Rodman, who had 22 rebounds, at one point had as many rebounds as the entire Clipper team.

The Clippers lead the NBA in field-goal percentage defense (41.9%), but allowed the Spurs (6-5) to shoot 55.8%, the highest percentage for a Clipper opponent this season.

And Weiss promised that there may be more changes for tonight’s game against the Dallas Mavericks (1-8) at Reunion Arena.

“I’m just going to ask some people, ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ ” Weiss said. “It doesn’t look like we want to play. . . . I’ll do whatever I have to do. It’s a little bit baffling why these guys don’t believe in themselves. I know Danny’s not out there, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t compete and have a good chance to win. We’ve got enough to still be good, so that’s no excuse.”

Harper, who missed six of 10 shots and had a team-high six turnovers in Saturday night’s loss, continued to struggle. Harper, who sat out the entire third quarter, missed seven of eight shots and scored a season-low three points in a season low 21-minutes. He played only six minutes in the second half.

“It’s up to the coach to play who he wants to play,” Harper said. “It ain’t up to the ballplayers, I don’t think. Ask the coach. He plays who he wants to play.”

Does Harper think Weiss was trying to send his team a message by benching the starters? “I’m sure he was trying to tell us something, there ain’t no doubt about that,” Harper said. “Now if it got through, we’ll find out tomorrow.”

Did Weiss’ move anger Harper?

“It didn’t bother me,” Harper said. “I’m going to go to the hotel and get me something to eat and go to sleep. It don’t bother me at all.”

Is Weiss concerned that Harper’s play has been affected by last week’s disclosure that Clipper Executive Vice President Andy Roeser has threatened to trade Harper, who becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, if the Clippers can’t sign him?

“I don’t want to talk about any individuals at this point,” Weiss said. “I’ll talk to people behind the scenes. You guys can speculate what you want, but I don’t want to mention names. I’ll go handle the problem inside.”

With the Clippers trailing 60-40 at halftime, reserve forwards Tom Tolbert, Henry James, backup center Bob Martin and rookie guard Terry Dehere joined starting guard Gary Grant, who had a season-high 22 points, on the floor for the start of the second half.

Dehere, who scored a season-high 15 points, scored 10 points in the third quarter as the Clippers outscored the Spurs 35-27 in the quarter to cut the deficit to 12 points entering the final period.

Weiss reinserted his starters for the fourth quarter and the Clippers cut the Spurs’ lead to nine points with eight minutes remaining. But the Spurs outscored the Clippers 15-7 over the next 6 1/2 minutes to take a 17-point lead.

Clipper Notes

Gary Grant, who opened the season by making 18 consecutive free throws, missed his first foul shot of the season with 2:29 remaining in the game. . . . Negele Knight, Spur point guard, sat out most of the game after experiencing blurred vision after being poked in the left eye three minutes into the game. . . . Center David Robinson led the Spurs with 28 points and nine rebounds and Dale Ellis added had 25 points, 15 in the first quarter.