This Time, Roberts Lasts Until Game 14 : Clippers: Center suffers a severely sprained ankle as Olajuwon, Drexler spark Rockets, 116-103.

First the Clippers lost center Stanley Roberts, then they lost their 19th consecutive game here to the Houston Rockets, 116-103, Tuesday night before a sellout of 16,285 at the Summit.

Roberts, who sat out 150 games over the last two seasons after tearing both Achilles’ tendons, suffered a severely sprained left ankle when he landed on Rocket center Hakeem Olajuwon’s foot with 3:41 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Roberts, who collapsed, had to be helped off the court by two teammates and will be sidelined indefinitely. He needed crutches to get from the training room to the shower and left the locker room in a wheelchair. Roberts, who accompanied the team to San Antonio for tonight’s game against the Spurs, will be X-rayed today.

“It’s tough, but I’ve just got to go back to the drawing board,” Roberts said with a grimace as he struggled to slip a protective device onto his swollen ankle. “I sprained my ankle in Orlando a couple years ago and was out for four weeks.”

Roberts, who reported to training camp overweight and out of shape, had been hampered by a sore right ankle, which sidelined him for three games last week. He was fitted with a modified right shoe with the heel cut out to relieve the pressure.

“He’s 300 pounds and [has] a couple little ligaments,” Rocket team physician Bruce Moseley said after examining Roberts. “The ligaments lost this battle.

“It looks like a bad ankle sprain. It was very swollen, so we wrapped it up and iced it. He’ll get X-rays once they get to San Antonio to make sure nothing’s broken, but it doesn’t look like anything is broken right now.

“It’s really hard to predict how long he’ll be out because we don’t have all the information. We’ll know a lot more tomorrow. My guess right now is 10 days to three weeks.”

Roberts, said the injuries are frustrating.

“It’s been rough the last couple years, but I’m going to try to hang in there,” Roberts said. “I’ve got to deal with the hand I was dealt.”

Forward Loy Vaught, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds, sympathizes with Roberts.

“I hate seeing that guy writhe around on the floor in pain,” Vaught said. “It’s like deja vu. Sometimes when he makes a quick movement, you just hold your breath. I hope he can again come back from this and be the player that he was several years ago.

“Tonight he had a period where he was just unstoppable, dunking the ball over Hakeem. He’s made a lot of progress, losing him is going to hurt us.”

The Clippers, who outscored the Rockets, 13-2, to cut a 16-point deficit to 102-97, collapsed after losing Roberts, who made four of five shots and had eight points and four rebounds in 13 minutes.

“The only time we were really in the game was when Stanley was out there,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said. “We’ve been through this before. It’s never easy. It’s not the foot that’s been bothering him, so now he’s got a sprained ankle on his good leg and a sore heel on the other one.”

Guard Clyde Drexler, who had 27 points and 11 rebounds after signing a multiyear contract extension, made four free throws and added a dunk as the Rockets (11-3) ended the game with a 14-6 spurt. Olajuwon, who had season highs in points (30), rebounds (19) and assists (six), made a jumper in the game-ending run.

“I’m just not happy with anything we did tonight,” Fitch said after the Clippers (7-7) lost for the fourth time in five games “We were like an elevator out there. We’d do one thing right and one thing wrong.

“We’ve got some of the same faces doing some of the same things that don’t make me happy.”

With Roberts out, starting center Brian Williams will have to play more minutes.

“Stanley is day to day anyway,” Williams said. “I look at it as having to be an iron man anyway.”