Decent Debut for Olowokandi

Michael Olowokandi’s NBA debut against Phoenix on Friday was far from perfect. He missed his first shot. He was beaten down the court in transition a couple of times. He picked up four fouls in only 22 minutes and he missed a free throw.

But he did a few things well. He scored 14 points and displayed quickness and patience with his post moves. He had six rebounds and was active banging bodies under the basket. He made four of five free throws after shooting 48% last season as a senior at Pacific.

“I could have played a whole lot worse,” said Olowokandi, the No. 1 draft choice. “It was a nice first-game experience and that’s out of the way.”

Assistant Jim Brewer has worked with Olowokandi after every practice since he returned from playing in Italy a week ago. Brewer has been impressed with how quick Olowokandi learns.

“It’s just a matter of him learning what he can do and what he can’t do in the NBA, that’s going to accelerate his learning curve,” said Brewer, who played center for nine NBA seasons. “I was truly impressed with his speed and his quickness for his size. . . . You tell him something, he’ll take a look at it and then if it is something that he can use, you’ll see it show up.”

Coach Chris Ford said that Olowokandi and the rest of the team’s big men have to get into better condition. The Suns took advantage of the Clippers’ lack of shape to get their running game in full gear in the second half.

Ford addressed the problem at Saturday’s practice.

“That is one of the priorities for our big guys, and we worked on that today. We did a lot of conditioning today,” Ford said. “We need our bigs to be able to run the floor.

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Point guard Sherman Douglas, who signed with the Clippers a day before the opener, may take some time to get into the flow of things despite being familiar with Ford after playing for him at Boston and Milwaukee. Douglas also needs conditioning and Ford has told him to get in extra work even on game days.

TONIGHT

vs. Chicago, 6

Fox Sports West 2

* Site--Sports Arena.

* Radio--KXTA (1150).

* Records--Clippers 0-1, Bulls 0-1.

* Record vs. Bulls (1997-98)--0-2.

* Update--With the retirement of Michael Jordan and the departure of Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Luc Longley and Steve Kerr, the Bulls were written off before the start of the season. But they played Utah tough before losing, 104-96, on Friday. Toni Kukoc scored 22 of his 32 points in the second half. First-year Coach Tim Floyd will start former Clippers Ron Harper and Brent Barry in the backcourt.

* Tickets--Sports Arena box office or TicketMaster, (213) 480-3232.