Clippers, Robinson Left Feeling Empty

Most nights, with the game on the line, the Clippers feel comfortable with the ball in the hands of guard Eric Piatkowski.

But Wednesday night was not one of those nights.

Wednesday was Hollywood night at the Sports Arena. And not just because actor Billy Crystal was sitting courtside.

Guard James Robinson, who goes by the nickname “Hollywood,” was having one of his best nights of the season--scoring, hustling, inspiring and generally putting on a show to keep the Clippers in a tight game with the New York Knicks.

But Coach Bill Fitch, worried that Robinson was tired after playing for a stretch of nearly 17 straight minutes, pulled him with 2:21 to play and the Clippers clinging to a three-point lead, reinserted Piatkowski and it was Piatkowski, scoreless from the field, who missed the final shot of the game, enabling the Knicks to hang on for a 77-76 victory before a crowd of 15,570.

“He got tired and he had to guard [Allan] Houston,” said Fitch of Robinson. “I wasn’t going for offense. I was going for defense.”

The problem was, without Robinson, there was no more offense. After he came out at the 2:21 mark, the Clippers failed to score again, New York going on a 6-0 run to pull out the victory.

And what did Robinson think of spending the closing minutes of his hot night on the bench?

It’s hard to say because he wasn’t talking. And it wasn’t because of fatigue.

Robinson scored 15 points in 23 minutes, going six for eight from the floor, including three of three from three-point range.

That certainly made him stand out on another poor shooting night for the Clippers, who hit only 38.3% from the floor.

Center Isaac Austin, who also had 15 points along with a team-high 11 rebounds, was seven for 11 from the floor. But forward Rodney Rogers was only four for 11, guard Darrick Martin was four for 14, forward Lamond Murray was two for six and Piatkowski was zero for seven, his only point of the night in 25 minutes on the court coming on a three throw.

Martin’s driving layup with 2:52 to play gave the Clippers a 76-68 lead.

But, as it turned out, their final points of the night as well.

With the Clippers still ahead, 76-75, and only 11.5 seconds left, Austin was called for traveling under the New York basket.

At the other end, Rogers was forced to foul Houston, who finished as the game’s leading scorer with 22 points, in order to stop him from driving in for the potential winning basket. The foul came with 8.1 seconds left.

Houston made both free throws on a night when he was only eight for 22 from the floor but perfect on three free-throw attempts.

When the Clippers put the ball on the floor, Charlie Ward, with a foul to give for New York, did so, killing nearly three full seconds off the clock.

That left only 5.3 seconds.

The Clippers worked the ball in to Piatkowski who fired from the left side, outside the three-point line, the ball coming up short.

The ball went out of bounds to the Clippers giving them one more shot, though a pretty faint one at best, considering only four-tenths of 4 a second remained.

The pass came into Piatkowski again, with Houston all over him. This time, Piatkowski was unable to shake free, the ball sailing out of his hands as the final buzzer sounded.

Another frustrating night in Clipperland had ended like so many others.

For this team, not even a Hollywood night has a happy ending.