Nothing Unusual About All of This

For a normal franchise, losing 15 in a row would be an all-time low. But not with the Clippers.

Saturday’s loss to San Antonio moved them within one of tying their franchise mark of 16 consecutive defeats to start a season and two from Miami’s NBA mark of 17, set in 1988-89.

“I haven’t even thought about it too much about it until recently because people keep bringing it up,” Eric Piatkowski said. “We’ve got a tough schedule ahead us. Who knows what is going to happen?”

The Clippers are also moving in on their own overall losing streak of 19 games, accomplished twice, once over the 1982-83 season and again in 1988-89. Unless the team goes 0-50, it’ll be tough for the Clippers to top their dismal 1988-89 season where they followed their 19-game losing streak with an 0-13 drought for a 1-32 stretch under Coach Gene Shue, who was fired and replaced by Don Casey in the middle of the season.

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In losing to the Spurs, the Clippers established a couple of season lows and came close on a few more. San Antonio’s 56.9% shooting from the field was the best for an opponent this year and the Spurs’ 30 assists also was a season high.

Led by Tim Duncan’s four blocks and David Robinson’s three, San Antonio’s 12 also was an opponent’s best. The Spurs’ 114 points fell one short of the Lakers’ 115 mark, and the 29-point margin of victory matched Atlanta’s 103-74 win.

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Rookie Michael Olowokandi, on the injured list because of an ankle injury, participated in warmup drills with the team before the game. Olowokandi, who had a minor disagreement with teammate Lorenzen Wright before the game, hopes to return by the end of this week.