Williams’ Offer Gets a Little Bigger

The Clippers have increased their offer to free-agent center Brian Williams to $16.8 million for four years, an NBA source said. Their previous offer was $12 million for three years.

Clipper spokesman Joe Safety declined to confirm or deny the increased offer, saying, “We have been doing everything humanly possible to bring this to a successful conclusion. We’d love to hear from Fred.”

Fred Slaughter, Williams’ agent, didn’t return several phone calls.

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Although reserve center Stanley Roberts scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds in Tuesday night’s 82-78 victory at Denver, Coach Bill Fitch doesn’t plan to start him in place of Kevin Duckworth, who has scored only eight points and shot 20% from the field in the Clippers’ last two games.

“Stanley struggles once in a while too,” Fitch said. “I like Stanley where he’s at right now and I like Duck where he’s at right now. I’m comfortable with that. Duck is the old head, so I don’t think there’s any problem with Stan sitting over there watching. In fact, I think Stan is just happy to be back.”