Clippers in a League of Their Own

Unlike some NBA teams that had a major turnover of players this year, the majority of Clipper players returned from last season.

One would think that their familiarity with each other would help them on the court. Think again.

In losing for the 22nd time in 23 games, the Clippers again played like a team of pickup players from different countries as the Toronto Raptors gave them a lesson in teamwork and hustle with a 93-82 victory Friday night before a sellout crowd of 18,839 at Air Canada Center.

The Clippers can only hope that they can turn things around like Toronto has in one year.

Last season, the Raptors were a team that seemed to gripe and moan better than they played basketball. They lost 19 of their first 20 games and finished 16-66.

But this is a new Toronto team. Gone are Damon Stoudamire, Walt Williams, and Marcus Camby. In their place, Raptor Coach Butch Carter has Charles Oakley, Kevin Willis, and rookie Vince Carter.

The Raptors (10-12) have won fourth consecutive games, tying a franchise record.

Toronto has a mix of experienced veterans and youth needed to jump-start a franchise. The Clippers could use the Raptors as a blueprint if they truly want to gain respect around the league.

“When you are having fun it makes the game easier,” said Carter, who made 10 of 11 shots from the field and had a game-high 26 points. “You can laugh, joke and still get the job done.”

Off the court, the Clippers are a friendly bunch. But once they put on their red, white and blue uniforms, they turn into selfish strangers who are the ones being laughed at.

“At times it does look like [we don’t know each other]. Right now the weakest part of our team is our chemistry,” second-year forward Maurice Taylor said. “We’re not playing together. Sometimes we look like a team that is getting better and other times we look like the same team with no togetherness.

“I could care less if everybody got along off the court, that’s not what you need. If you look at the Chicago Bulls’ [championship teams], they’ll tell you that none of them really got along off the court but they were together on it. . . . I don’t care if no one wanted to go out with me after the game. . . . We could be like brothers off the court but it is not going to win us ballgames.”

Ford, who has tried to get his team to play together, opened with his 12th different starting lineup--most in the league--and it worked early as the Clippers seemed to respond to his criticism after back-to-back losses at New York and Boston.

For the first time, Ford started Tyrone Nesby, Michael Olowokandi, Eric Piatkowski, Sherman Douglas and Taylor together and the Clippers played well early.

But after trailing, 49-46, at halftime, the Clippers made things easy for Toronto in the second half. At least five times they either failed to get a shot off or were forced into taking a bad one before the 24-second clock expired.

The Clippers also gave up eight offensive rebounds to the Raptors in the third quarter alone, which enabled Toronto open a 76-63 lead as the teams began play in the fourth quarter.

In the fourth, the Clippers made a couple of brief runs, but either forced a bad shot or turned the ball over to end the rally.

“We were playing so well in the first half and then we get out of character . . . one bad shot, one mistake defensively and it snowballs,” said Douglas, who played 35 minutes despite a nagging groin injury. “We’re not mature enough to overcome those things. Once the pressure gets on it seems like we fold up.”

The Clippers, who made eight of 14 three-point attempts, shot only 38% overall. After scoring 27 points in the first quarter, they failed to reach 20 over the final three.

Ford has probably run out of coaching tricks to inspire the Clippers, and his players know that.

“We’ve had speeches, speeches and speeches, but the coach can only do so much,” swingman Charles Smith said. “We have to dig down in ourselves and take some pride.”