Clippers End Trip Feeling, Looking Good

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch picked up a pay phone outside the locker room at the Continental Arena after the Clippers defeated the New Jersey Nets, 103-96, Sunday to end a seven-game, 12-day trip.

“I’ve got to call home to tell them we’re coming so the dog won’t bite us when we get back, we’ve been gone so long,” Fitch said.

Winless in the first four games, the Clippers won their final three, posting victories over the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics before defeating the Nets here for the first time in seven games.

Contending for their first playoff berth in four years, the Clippers, have a 4-game lead over the Sacramento Kings with seven games remaining.

But swingman Charles Outlaw, who had nine points, a season-high 12 rebounds, five blocked shots and four steals, said the Clippers won’t be content with only making the playoffs.

“Why just make them when you can go and try to win them?” Outlaw said. “It’s never a goal just to get somewhere, you want to get somewhere and do something productive, right?

“When you go on your vacation, you don’t want to just get there and hang out, you want to get there and sight-see? We want to get to these playoffs and win some.”

Guard Terry Dehere, who grew up in Jersey City and played at nearby Seton Hall, scored 15 points in 15 minutes as the Clippers extended the Nets’ losing streak to four games. Dehere has averaged 16 points in his last two games.

“Terry did a good job, you’d think he was home or something, the way he played,” Fitch said. Dehere, who played most of his college games at this arena, scored eight points in the final quarter as the Clippers shot 60% and outscored the Nets, 30-19. With the Clippers leading by two points with 7 1/2 minutes remaining, Dehere made a three-point shot to trigger a 9-2 spurt.

“I just like playing in this building,” Dehere said. “I played here for a long time, but when you’re comfortable as I was today, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing.

“Any time you go on the road and go .500 it’s a good situation, but we showed a lot of character to get the last three after losing the first four.”

Although it was the end of a trip, Dehere appeared fresh.

“It’s a six-hour flight [to Los Angeles] and the worst thing is to be on a long flight and know you just lost a game,” Dehere said.

Forward Loy Vaught, starting his fourth consecutive game at center, had 20 points and 11 rebounds.

“When you start 0-4 and end a road trip like we did, it’s no easy task, so we’re feeling proud of ourselves,” Vaught said. “It’s was a really tough trip and finishing this way sends us home on a positive note.”

The Clippers held New Jersey to four points in its first seven possessions in the final quarter and 33.3% shooting.

“You always pick your defense up in the fourth quarter,” Outlaw said. “You hate for it to be like that, you’d rather play defense hard the whole game, but we needed to step up on the defensive end and we did. When we needed stops, we got them.”

The Clippers also did a good job of checking rookie guard Kerry Kittles, who scored 17 points in the first half, limiting him to six points in the second half.

“We showed them some tape at halftime of how we played Kittles in the first half and we made an adjustment,” Fitch said.

After missing nine of 16 free throws in the first three quarters, the Clippers made nine of 14 in the last quarter, including seven in the final 1:43.

“That’s when it counts,” said guard Darrick Martin, who made two free throws in the final 1:43. “You’ve got to step up and [make free throws] in the fourth quarter.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Stand

The race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the NBA’s Western Conference. There are 82 regular- season games:

*--*

NO. TEAM W-L GB 8. Clippers 34-41 -- 9. Sacramento 30-45 4 10. Golden State 28-47 6

*--*