Fitch Shuffles Clippers but Still Has Losing Hand : Pro basketball: No need to panic, says Suns’ Barkley after they win, 118-106, to avoid three losses in a row.

The Clippers, who were unable to work out a deal for disgruntled forward Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls before Thursday’s NBA trading deadline, could have used him in Friday night’s 118-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

Heck, the Clippers could have used the Gorilla, the Suns’ mascot who dunks off a trampoline, when they fell behind by 27 points in the third quarter en route to their fourth consecutive loss, before 19,023 at the America West Arena.

Coach Bill Fitch employed his third different lineup in as many games. Rookie forward Eric Piatkowski started in place of Lamond Murray, guard Terry Dehere replaced Malik Sealy and Tony Massenburg replaced 7-foot center Eric Riley.

“I think when you’re 9-45 you ought to be able to change your lineup and it probably should go unnoticed,” Fitch said. “I thought Lamond had gotten tired. His game had gotten the fatigue factor. He didn’t get an All-Star break like the rest of them, and I wanted to go with Terry and Pooh (Richardson) back there.”

But the changes did little good as the Clippers lost their ninth consecutive game to the Suns.

Murray said he wasn’t angry about losing his starting job.

“I don’t feel anything about it. That’s the coach’s decision,” he said.

Asked if he was tired after playing in the rookie game during All-Star weekend, Murray said, “I don’t know about all that. . . . I come off the bench and do what I can when I get in there.”

Murray had a team-high 20 points and 12 rebounds in 28 minutes, and Sealy had 16 points in 32 minutes.

The Clippers denied reports that they offered Murray and their 1995 first-round draft pick for Pippen. They will continue to pursue Pippen after the NBA playoffs, when teams can resume trading.

Murray said he wasn’t bothered by the trade speculation.

“That’s part of this game,” Murray said. “That’s part of being a Clipper. There’s going to be trade rumors or whatever. You may be there one year and not be there the next. That seems to be how the NBA is going now.

“I really don’t worry about it. I’m not going to sit there and go, ‘Oh the Clippers tried to trade me!’ I’m not going to cry about it.”

The Suns, whose bid to become the first team in NBA history to finish a season without losing two consecutive games ended with a 105-100 defeat at San Antonio on Wednesday, had little trouble against the Clippers.

Forward Charles Barkley scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in 24 minutes, forward Wayman Tisdale had 18 points and A.C. Green had 16 points and nine rebounds.

“You know, you know what happens is everybody becomes a genius when you lose two in a row,” Barkley said. “It’s going to happen sometime throughout the season. It’ll probably happen again sometime down the line.

“One of the reasons people are (stupid) is because they panic every time something bad happens. We lost two games in a row.

“We still have the best record in the world, so everybody relax and enjoy yourselves and stop panicking all the time.”