No Deals as Deadline Passes

The Clippers, who need a center after losing Stanley Roberts and Kevin Duckworth to injuries, discussed sending center Dwayne Schintzius to the Charlotte Hornets for former UCLA center George Zidek.

“Then he could have been lying on his stomach on [the Hornets’] training table,” a Clipper said of Schintzius, who has played only nine games because of ankle, back and stomach ailments after signing a $650,000 contract in September.

But the Clippers didn’t make any moves before Thursday’s trading deadline.

How close did the Clippers come to making a deal with the Hornets, who later sent Zidek and another player to Denver for guard Ricky Pierce?

“We never talk about close,” Coach Bill Fitch said. “We were looking for some relief. We were looking to make an exchange of six or seven inches but it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Schintzius said he was happy the deal wasn’t made.

“I want to play here,” Schintzius said. “I want to get well and I want to stay here and I want to play here, in that order.”

The logical move seemed to have been to trade a guard, because the Clippers have six of them.

“I thought maybe something would happen,” guard Terry Dehere said.