Clippers Are Better Than Empty Pond

By MIKE PENNER

Oct. 19, 1994 12 AM PT

You force Orange County’s sporting customers to go without their hockey for three weeks--no Mighty Ducks, cold turkey--and you have to presume they are going to be bored.

But this bored?

A Clipper franchise record 18,052 turned out at The Pond Tuesday night to watch a loosely defined “exhibition of professional basketball” against the Lakers.

Repeat: A franchise record.

That’s 25 years of basketball, usually extremely wretched basketball.

The Clippers never drew 18,052 in Buffalo. Never in San Diego. Never in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, a turnstile count of 18,052 represents a pretty fair three-game home stand.

But in Orange County, they flood the freeways, jam the parking lot and pay through the nose for this stuff, proving a theory I have long held about the magical, mystical, magnetic Pond of Anaheim.

Open the doors, turn on the lights, flash a few words on the marquee--”TONIGHT: HUMANS BREATHING HARD, 7:30,” for instance--and the place will be filled to the brim.

Or schedule nothing at all.

Or schedule the Clippers.

Virtually one and the same.

Never before have so many spent so much to witness so little. The Clippers, playing host here as part of Orange County’s rent-an-NBA-orphan program, lost to the Lakers, 120-104, but the score might as well have been 220-104. The Clippers were never in the game, never had a chance, never pushed the opposition into breaking into a sweat, so in this regard, new head coach/poor, poor soul Bill Fitch has his charges in midseason form.

“You have one of these nights from time to time,” Fitch said after following the bouncing ball clank off The Pond backboards, sail into The Pond seats and careen off Clipper fingers. “And, boy, we had one tonight.”

For the Clippers, one of those nights included doling out 19 minutes to Tony Massenburg, 20 to Charles Outlaw, 23 to Harold Ellis, 12 to Keith Smart and 10 to Orlando Vega.

They did not make the most of them.

“I’d hate to gauge the whole season on one exhibition game, but, on the other side, we got to play a lot of people,” Fitch noted, grasping for a straw, any straw.

“These guys have been working hard in practice. They paid for the opportunity in camp. So we got them in there and now we have a better idea of what to do when we have to cut down to 12.”

Is it possible to cut an entire franchise?

Bright spots for the Clippers? Fitch scratched his head and said he thought it was good to get Massenburg, a 6-9 forward from Maryland via F.C. Barcelona--not the soccer team, presumably--some playing time.

“He’s missed most of camp, so it was good to put him out there for the conditioning,” Fitch said.

And Eric Piatkowski, the rookie swingman acquired from Indiana in the Pooh Richardson trade, made his NBA debut after signing Friday.

“He nailed his first shot,” Fitch chirped. “That’s another good sign.”

Elmore Spencer also played. This was notable in that Spencer walked out of camp Monday afternoon. Quite literally. Spencer walked off the Bren Center floor in mid-workout, changed clothes and kept walking, all the way to the team hotel, about a three-mile stroll.

For several hours, the Clippers considered Spencer AWOL. Not a good thing for a team already down one center, Stanley Roberts, currently sidelined with a sprained waistline.

Eventually, Spencer showed up, but Fitch kept him out of the starting lineup Tuesday night. On most teams, this is considered a disciplinary measure, but on the Clippers, this is known as a lucky break.

Instead, Fitch started Bob Martin at center. He had four points and one rebound in 13 minutes. Then he sent in Robert Werdann. Then Matt Fish.

Then, he’d seen enough, so Spencer was finally told to take off the warm-ups.

“His minutes were planned,” Fitch said. “When you punish somebody, you don’t want to overdo it. You just want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“Believe me, he won’t do it again.”

Unfortunately, the Clippers are scheduled to do it again here six more times, all of them counting in the regular-season standings.

It keeps the place busy, I suppose, but if The Pond needs some suggestions on what do with itself during the NHL lockout, here’s a partial list of things to try:

1. Roller hockey.

2. Indoor soccer.

3. Roller disco.

4. Indoor plumbing.

5. Arena football.

6. Arena foosball.

7. Barbra Streisand concerts.

8. Rolling Stones concerts.

9. Sons of the Rolling Stones concerts.

10. Barney (the Forum Blue Dinosaur) concerts.

11. Tractor pulls.

12. Taffy pulls.