Clippers Barely Put Up a Struggle

It’s too bad hypnotist Tom Silver spent halftime of Thursday night’s Laker-Clipper game entertaining on the court at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

His time might have been better spent in the Clipper locker room, trying to hypnotize the players into thinking they were a basketball team.

They certainly didn’t act like a competitive club, falling behind early and not putting up much of a struggle after that in losing to the Lakers, 108-85, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,521, the largest to watch a pro basketball game in Southern California.

In a game that announcer Chick Hearn could have put in the refrigerator while the halftime snack was still on ice, the Lakers rolled to their fifth win in a row and a sweep of the four-game season series against the Clippers.

The Lakers certainly don’t need a hypnotist to be convinced that Derek Fisher can play point guard.

Fisher is doing his best to convince the Lakers that he can be a starter. That’s not going to happen. As soon as Nick Van Exel has fully recovered from knee surgery, he’ll get his starting job back.

But Fisher has opened some eyes while starting the last 13 games in Van Exel’s absence.

Thursday night, along with 21 points to tie his career high, Fisher had his third consecutive double-double. But while the previous two consisted of points and assists, Fisher excelled in yet another facet of his ever-expanding game Thursday by getting a career-high 11 rebounds.

Fisher made eight of nine shots, including three of four from three-point range. That gives the hot-shooting Fisher a combined 14 of 20 from the floor, including six of eight on three-pointers, in the last two games, played over the last 24 hours.

In the last 13 games he has started, Fisher is shooting 53.8% from the floor.

But are defenses still conceding him the outside shot?

“Oh yeah,” Fisher said. “I don’t think that’s out of disrespect of me, but out of respect for Shaq [O’Neal]. Regardless of who you are, there will be doubters and people who are skeptical of what you are doing.

“Hopefully I’ve proven now, to myself and others, that I can shoot the basketball.”

O’Neal had a game-high 32 points in 33 minutes, dominating his first matchup with Isaac Austin since Austin’s arrival in Los Angeles a month ago.

Eddie Jones added 23 points and Robert Horry led all rebounders with 14.

None of these numbers should be a surprise considering this was a matchup between the highest scoring team in the league (Lakers) and the worst defensive club (the Clippers).

But with the postseason looming a little over a month away, the Lakers are determined to avoid a letdown for even one night.

“We played the kind of game we had to play,” Laker Coach Del Harris said. “We continue to play playoff-style basketball.

The Clippers stumbled out of the starting gate, falling behind, 8-0. With 6:16 to play in the first quarter, they had only two points. They made only one of their first 11 from the floor.

Austin made only five of 22 from the floor, finishing with 13 points, along with 13 rebounds. Guard Eric Piatkowski, whose offense had emerged since the trade of Brent Barry last month, was only one of seven from the floor on a night when the Clippers shot only 35.4% to the Lakers’ 50.6%.

What bothered Clipper Coach Bill Fitch more than the numbers was the collective frame of mind of his team.

“We only play here once a month,” he said, “but I don’t want to hear about that because [the Lakers] don’t play here at all.

“This is a big disappointment. I’m unhappy with this game from the standpoint of our extending ourselves. This team sometimes worries about its offensive effort too much and its defensive effort not enough.”