Trip Doesn’t End Soon Enough as Clippers Embarrassed, 90-69

The lines on Clipper Coach Bill Fitch’s forehead were as deep as the Cuyahoga River as he walked off the court after a 90-69 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers before 13,732 at Gund Arena on Sunday night.

Fitch had every right to be concerned after watching his team produce its lowest point total of the season against the NBA’s best defense.

Although the Clippers don’t record franchise lows, it’s believed to be the third lowest point total in franchise history. The Buffalo Braves scored only 63 points in a 28-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 21, 1972 and the Cavaliers held the Clippers to 68 points in a 22-point loss on Jan. 23, 1995.

“We had too much ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ tonight,” Fitch said. “I thought when it comes to thinking at the other end and creating for one another, we just didn’t do it tonight.

“Give them credit, we’re not the only ones they’ve done it to, but if everybody else has helped themselves get shot in the foot as much as we did, I’m not going to give them credit for the number they held Orlando to [an NBA record-tying low of 57 points].

“The thing that impressed me most about the Cavs is the thing we said we had to do, pass the basketball and make one more pass against them. As the game went along, we forgot that.”

The Clippers, who scored only eight points in the first quarter of Saturday night’s 89-80 loss at New York, scored only 13 points on 17.6% shooting in the third quarter against the Cavaliers, who have given up 80.1 points a game.

“They executed and we got executed,” guard Malik Sealy said after the Clippers recorded season-lows of six field goals and 29 points in the second half. “They were all over us defensively. They made every shot difficult. They just beat up on us.”

Clipper guard Brent Barry said the Cavaliers disguise their defense.

“Their defense is excellent,” Barry said. “They do a great job of playing a zone defense without getting called.”

After winning six of their first 10 games, the Clippers have lost nine of their last 10.

“We’ve got to find some chemistry,” Fitch said. “The thing I’m looking for is an eight-man rotation. I don’t care if it’s the son of the president or a No. 1 draft choice, if he’s not good enough to crack that eight, he’s not playing.”

How can the Clipper offense become more productive?

“If we keep running the same plays over and over again I don’t think it’s too hard to play defense,” Clipper forward Lamond Murray said. “They play great defense. We had to go out and take tough shots all night because they had a hand up every time we had a shot.”

All-Star point guard Terrell Brandon and the Cavalier backcourt outplayed Clipper point guard Pooh Richardson and his cohorts.

Brandon had 21 of the Cavaliers’ 24 first-quarter points and finished with 30 points, nine assists and four rebounds. Richardson had two points, three assists and two rebounds.

Reserve guard Bob Sura had 14 points, five assists and three rebounds as the Cavalier guards outscored the Clipper backcourt, 51-26.

“He had a stretch there like Terrell had at the end of the first half,” Cavalier Coach Mike Fratello said of Sura, who scored 10 points in the final quarter. “It looked like tag-team wrestling, where one guy pats the other guy on the shoulder and says, ‘Take a blow for a second, let me help out here.’ ”

Sura punctuated the game with a fourth-quarter power dunk over Barry, who won the NBA slam dunk contest last February.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and his entourage arrived midway through the first quarter and sat behind the Clipper bench. Tyson, who moved to a seat behind the Cleveland bench at halftime, watched the Cavaliers, who trailed, 40-36, at halftime, knock out the Clippers with a 12-0 spurt to open the third quarter.