Clipper Skid Hits a Low in This Loss

It’s one thing to lose to the Chicago Bulls.

But the New Jersey Nets?

The Nets, who failed to make a basket on their first 16 possessions, handed the Clippers their sixth consecutive loss, 106-95, in overtime Saturday night before 11,519 at the Pond of Anaheim.

“It was ugly,” Net Coach John Calipari said. “These poor people . . . Donald [Sterling] should consider giving them their money back.”

Clipper guard Malik Sealy, who had a team-high 16 points before fouling out, said: “Man, we need to stop the bleeding. We haven’t been playing like we played the first couple games. Defensively, we’ve been allowing teams to do whatever they want to do. We’ve got to get back to playing some hard-nosed defense and creating some easy fastbreak baskets for ourselves.”

Former USC guard Robert Pack scored 11 of his 24 points in overtime as the Nets, who scored only 32 points in the first half, scored an NBA-record 25 points in overtime.

“It was a rough one,” said Clipper guard Darrick Martin, who had 12 points and five assists in his second consecutive start. “We’re just not playing real well right now. We need to get back to doing the things we were doing when we were winning earlier in the season.”

Reserve guard Brent Barry, who was activated Friday after sitting out the first 14 games because of a thumb injury, helped the Clippers overcome an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit to send the game to overtime tied, 81-81.

Trailing 77-69, the Clippers outscored the Nets, 12-4, to force an extra five-minute period.

The Clippers led, 81-79, after Barry, who had seven points in the final quarter, made a free throw with 14.4 seconds left, but Jayson Williams made a layup with 8.8 seconds left to tie it. The Clippers had a chance to win it in regulation, but Lamond Murray missed a jumper just before time expired.

“It was a botched play,” Murray said. “I was throwing the ball in and they put a 7-6 building [Shawn Bradley] in front of me and it was hard to look over him. I forced a pass into Malik and it bounced off his legs and back to me and I had to get a shot off.”

The Clippers were outscored, 14-2, in the first three minutes of overtime as the Nets (3-9) ended a three-game losing streak.

Williams, the NBA’s third leading rebounder behind Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman, had season highs of 28 points and 24 rebounds, and Kendall Gill had 29 points.

Although the Nets shot only 34.2%, they made a team-record 49 of 60 free throws.

The Clippers, who were booed off the court at the end of the third quarter, received their biggest ovation when Barry entered the game with 10:42 left.

Although Coach Bill Fitch wants to work Barry back into the lineup gradually, he may have to use him more because Barry seems to energize the team when he plays. The Clippers seem stale without his energy and enthusiasm.

Barry, who had five points in a 7-0 spurt that began immediately after he entered the game, made a three-pointer from the left of three-point stripe and pointed his finger like six-shooters. He added a fastbreak layup.

Fitch went with the same lineup he employed for Friday night’s 111-94 loss at Utah, starting Stanley Roberts at center in place of Kevin Duckworth and Martin at point guard in place of Pooh Richardson.

“We’ve got to fine-tune some things right now,” Martin said before the game. “We’ve played well in spurts and in some spurts we don’t play well, we’ve got to cut down on those spurts.”