Latest Broadway Bomb: Clippers

The Clippers’ traveling comedy act made it to Broadway on Tuesday night and the league’s worst team did not need long to play down to its pregame hype.

New York’s Larry Johnson opened with one. Allan Houston followed with his own. Then, Charlie Ward added one for good measure. The result: Three consecutive three-point baskets by the Knicks en route to scoring the first 14 points in a 113-89 laugher over the Clippers before a sellout crowd of 19,753 at Madison Square Garden.

The Clippers, who will play the third game of a five-game trip tonight at Boston, are 1-20 and have lost their last three games.

“You would think that playing in New York would get the guys going but this was one of our worst starts of the season,” said Clipper Coach Chris Ford, whose team dropped to 0-10 on the road.

For the Knicks, who have won three games in three nights without injured center Patrick Ewing, the easy win and dismal effort from the Clippers is just what they and their fans expected.

“We have good dudes on our team. I don’t believe the things they say about us,” said Pooh Richardson, a 10-year veteran with the longest tenure as a Clipper. “I’m with these guys every day. What people don’t understand is that we have a young group of guys. Very young.”

Most disappointing about the Clippers’ latest collapse was the lack of fight from the team’s few veteran players, who will be free agents at the end of the season.

The Clippers had five players in uniform (Rodney Rogers, Lorenzen Wright, Darrick Martin, Eric Piatkowski and Lamond Murray) in their final contract year and only Murray, who came off the bench to score 18 points on seven of 10 shooting, played well.

“Guys who will be free agents have an opportunity to go out there and work hard,” Ford said. “They can go out and earn some minutes and work toward a future contract . . . Theses guys are passing up golden opportunities.”

Rogers, who had been coming off the bench and playing power forward or center, started at small forward to guard Johnson, who presented a problem with his size for normal starter Tyrone Nesby.

The move, however, did not work early and it cost the Clippers.

Johnson was a perfect three of three from behind the arc and had 13 points in the first quarter to lead the Knicks, who led, 25-6, midway through the quarter, to a 31-21 edge heading into the second quarter. The Clippers stayed close thanks to the play of reserves Michael Olowokandi, Richardson and Murray.

The Clippers continued their run to start the second quarter and closed within 31-26 after a basket by Maurice Taylor, who matched Murray with 18 points. New York, however, responded with a rally and took a commanding 59-42 lead at halftime, thanks to 18 second-quarter points by Latrell Sprewell.

Sprewell mainly took advantage of Piatkowski while scoring a seaon-high 31 points. With Ewing still nursing an Achilles’ injury, the Knicks pushed the ball up the floor and featured the strengths of Sprewell, Johnson and Houston.

Trailing by 11 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Clippers faded quickly in the fourth. They were outscored, 18-2, to begin the quarter with Sprewell doing most of the damage. Sprewell made 11 of 17 shots overall.

“We just don’t raise our intensity like other teams,” said Richardson, who had 10 points and five assists. “When you have a veteran team, they raise the level normally in the fourth. We might be close in a lot of games and then [the opposition] takes their play higher.”

New York, which shot 55.9% from the field, had five players score more than 12 points with Houston getting 24 and Johnson 20.

“Tonight could have been a night where, you know, you let one slip away or it comes down to the wire,” New York Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “Other than that little bit in the second quarter, where we didn’t play our best, I think we really took care of business.”

Making the Knicks one of 20 teams to do so against the Clippers.