Clippers Blown Down by the Big, Bad Magic

If the young, improved Clippers wanted to know how they measured up against one of the NBA’s elite teams, the answer was . . .

Don’t ask.

They came out firing at the Orlando Magic on Friday night, but that only seemed to anger the big guys, who proceeded to run up a 30-point lead and coast to a 122-98 victory, their 23rd in a row at home.

Brian Shaw, a reserve guard, registered a triple-double (11 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds) in 28 minutes. Penny Hardaway missed another by three rebounds; he said if he would have known, he would have been on the boards.

Brian Williams, who said he had “Brianized” Charlotte center George Zidek on Wednesday, complained of dizziness--and that was before lining up against Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal, a known cause of dizzy spells, outscored him, 25-8.

Coach Bill Fitch, normally a hard-bitten loser, waived the 10-minute cooling-off period and opened the dressing-room door right away. Fitch can recognize a mismatch when he sees one.

“Good first quarter, wasn’t it?” Fitch said. “After that, just too much. Too much for us to handle.”

As they had in Charlotte, the Clippers came out hot. O’Neal got two early fouls, and after he left with 3:29 left in the first quarter, L.A. went on a 12-3 run. When he returned, four minutes into the second quarter, the Clippers led, 38-31.

After that, O’Neal began running all over the place, blocking shots, grabbing rebounds, scoring, starting fastbreaks that gave Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson wide open three-point shots, finishing fastbreaks himself.

The Magic finished the second quarter with a 22-7 run and a 53-45 lead. At halftime, the Magic players were telling themselves to get serious and what came next looked pretty serious, indeed.

“Teams come in here with nothing to lose, underdogs,” Scott said. “You don’t want to give them any life.

“The first period, Loy Vaught would make a shot and you could hear them: ‘Yeah, Loy. Yeah, Loy.’ Brian made a couple plays on Shaq. Shaq got in foul trouble.”

The Magic started the third quarter with a 13-0 burst and all that remained was 20 minutes of garbage time.

“We started out pretty well,” Fitch said. “We were taking the ball where we wanted to. We got the franchise [O’Neal] out of there. We had a nice run while he was out.

“But after that, too much of everything. They’re not the type of team you want to play anything but your best basketball game against. No excuses for us. I tell you what, that’s a good basketball team. We have bigger problems playing them than we do any of the other teams.

“If you let Shaq stay out there for 40 minutes and do his thing, the other guys thrive on him. You can see their eyes lighting up on that three-point line.”

Williams was out of it from the beginning, going to the dressing room to lie down just before the game began when he felt light-headed.

He played well enough in the first half, scoring eight points with six rebounds but went scoreless in only five minutes of the second.

“I played the first half that way,” Williams said. “I figured it might subside at halftime. It just got worse. This was obviously not the game and the town I’d ever want to leave a game under those circumstances, but there was really nothing I could do.”

Williams, originally drafted by the Magic, played two unhappy seasons here in which he was also treated for depression.

“Our play tonight might have contributed a little to his nausea,” said Fitch. “I felt a sickening feeling too.”

Late Friday night, the Clippers flew to Miami, and that made everyone feel a little better.