Clippers at Least See How It’s Done

The ballots for the NBA awards are due today and Minnesota guard Stephon Marbury, the fourth-youngest player to start an NBA game, showed the Clippers why he might win the rookie-of-the-year award.

Marbury got 29 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as the Timberwolves clinched the first playoff berth in their eight-year history, handing the Clippers their second consecutive loss, 108-96, Thursday night before 15,283 at the Sports Arena.

Forward Kevin Garnett, who had 19 points, carried Marbury off the court in triumph after the Timberwolves (38-39) clinched the seventh of eight spots in the Western Conference.

“This has been a breakout year for us,” Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders said. “No longer are we the laughingstock of the league.”

Contending for their first playoff berth in four seasons, the Clippers (34-43) still have a three-game lead over Sacramento (31-46) with five games remaining after the Kings lost to Phoenix.

“Well, we’ve got seven [playoff teams] in the Western Conference,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said. “I congratulate the Timberwolves. They gave us a good lesson on how to get there. Maybe if we can [follow] the same recipe we can get in there ourselves. We’ve hit a slump at the wrong time.”

The Clippers have already started printing playoff tickets and distributing applications for playoff media credentials, but they’re not in yet.

The NBA’s fourth-leading rookie scorer, Marbury took over the game in the third quarter, making five of six shots, including two three-point shots, and scoring 13 points as the Timberwolves outscored the Clippers, 33-23, to take a 75-65 lead into the final quarter.

Clipper guard Darrick Martin, who missed his first six shots before making a three-point shot in the final minute, envies the way Saunders lets Marbury run the offense.

“He’s a good player who has a lot of freedom,” Martin said of Marbury, who had 22 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, in his last game against the Clippers. “He’s hard to guard because he has a lot of freedom.”

Forward Rodney Rogers, who sat out the last three quarters of Tuesday night’s loss to the Houston Rockets because of an ankle injury, scored a season-high 30 points, one under his career high.

Rogers made 11 of 15 shots and had nine rebounds.

“It didn’t bother me,” Rogers said of the ankle. “I didn’t worry about it once we got started. You don’t want to push it too hard, but you’ve got to look at what we have at stake.”

Rogers, who broke his nose in a victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 25, was elbowed in the nose by Marbury in the third quarter. Rogers had just recently stopped wearing a protective mask.

Guard Malik Sealy, who had a team-high 26 points in his last game, missed all nine shots and had one point in 24 minutes as the Clippers’ starting backcourt was outscored, 31-7, by their Minnesota counterparts.

“We’ve got six guards and we couldn’t find a combination of defense and offense among those six guys tonight,” Fitch said. “That’s probably about as cold a night I’ve seen out of Malik in three years since I’ve known him.”

Guard Terry Dehere, who averaged 16 points in the last two games of the Clippers, seven-game, 12-day trip, scored 15 points in 16 minutes as a reserve.

Reserve center Lorenzen Wright missed 10 of 13 shots and had seven points and 12 rebounds in 36 minutes.

The Clippers, playing their second consecutive home game after winning the final three games of the long trip, were flat at the start, missing 17 of their first 20 shots and falling behind the Timberwolves, 18-3, five minutes into the first quarter.

“We can’t have any more quarters like that if we expect to be in the playoffs,” Martin said. “I take responsibility for that as a leader.”

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* IS SHAQ BACK?

O’Neal could be activated for tonight’s game, but that will be bad news for someone. C11