Clippers Get Rare Road Victory

Victories of any kind are still tough to come by for the Clippers, so one on the road Sunday was even more gratifying.

Rodney Rogers had 25 points, and Loy Vaught and Stanley Roberts had double-doubles as the Clippers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-107, to snap a five-game road losing streak.

“Coming in here we knew they’ve been playing well at home, so this was a good game for us,” said Roberts, who combined with Vaught and Rogers to give the Clippers a dominant inside game.

Minnesota played without regulars Andrew Lang, Spud Webb and Doug West.

“You can play at certain times with a depleted roster, but it’s going to catch up to you,” Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders said. “Today was one of those games where the bench caught up to us and the injuries caught up to us.

“We didn’t want to give Roberts a lane to the basket, so we overplayed him and it hurt us. If we had Andrew [Lang], he can play Stanley head-up.”

Minnesota took 101 shots to 79 for the Clippers, but Los Angeles made 53%, the Timberwolves 43%.

“Our game plan was to go inside to Stanley so it would open up the outside,” Coach Bill Fitch said. “We did not hit a lot of outside shots, but the ones we did were timely.”

Vaught finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds, and Roberts added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Roberts had six consecutive points for the Clippers to break an 88-88 tie with about eight minutes to play. After Minnesota went ahead, 95-94, on Kevin Garnett’s basket, Rogers gave the Clippers the lead for good at 98-95 with two baskets.

The Clippers had six players in double figures. Terry Dehere, who clinched the victory with three free throws in the final 23 seconds, had 14 points.

Isaiah Rider led Minnesota with 25 points, and Tom Gugliotta had 24 points and 12 rebounds. Minnesota’s Terry Porter tied his own season-high with 16 assists.

For the Clippers, Sunday’s game was the first of six consecutive games against teams with .500 or worse records.