Road Looks Pretty Good to Clippers

Teammates helping each other on defense. Players making the extra pass on offense. Big men dominating the boards on both ends of the court. Hard fouls delivered instead of received.

Believe it or not, that’s how the Clippers played Sunday afternoon and the result was an impressive 100-85 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves before 15,371 at Target Center.

With hustle and by playing together, the Clippers, who hadn’t won an away game since March 17, 1998, showed what type of team they can be as they ended a five-game losing streak and a 20-game road drought.

“Everybody was involved,” said Lamond Murray, who had 19 points, six rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes off the bench. “We moved the ball around offensively, everybody had a lot of assists and we outrebounded them. That was the big key.”

By ending a five-game trip positively and avenging an earlier defeat to the Timberwolves at the Sports Arena, the Clippers suddenly discovered the type of chemistry that had been lacking most of the season.

And they did it short-handed.

Because point guard Sherman Douglas could not play because of a nagging groin injury and quadriceps strain, Darrick Martin was called upon to run the show and he did just that.

Martin, who seems to play better when he’s not looking over his shoulder to get pulled in favor of Douglas, played all but seven seconds of the game and had his best effort of the year.

He had a team-high 22 points, including three three-point baskets, dished out seven assists and grabbed five rebounds. It was the kind of game he had in the Clippers’ only other win this season when he played 41 minutes and had 18 points and 11 assists against Sacramento, a contest Douglas also missed because of injury.

“Darrick had to go the whole game,” Clipper Coach Chris Ford said. “He knocked some shots, made good assists and played good defense. He had a great game for us.”

Minnesota, which had defeated the Clippers eight games in a row, held a three-point lead after one quarter before the Clippers began to click. In arguably their best quarter of the season, the Clippers outscored the Timberwolves, 35-25, to take a 52-45 lead at halftime.

The lineup that did the most damage was made up of players who played together last year--Rodney Rogers, Maurice Taylor, Lorenzen Wright, Murray and Martin.

“That was nice to see because we’ve been here through thick and thin and through what is going on right now,” Martin said. “I didn’t really notice that until the end and it was good.

“We were the aggressors today instead of being on our heels and being passive.”

The third quarter, which had been a problem whenever they played a strong first half before, was dominated by the Clippers. With rookie center Michael Olowokandi, Wright and Rogers leading a 52-35 rebounding advantage against one of the best rebounding teams in the league, the Clippers extended their lead to 16 points heading into the fourth.

“The last time we played them, Kevin Garnett and Joe Smith were dunking on us and grabbing rebounds above the rim,” said Olowokandi, who had a career-high 16 rebounds and six points. “I looked at that and said, ‘We can do the same thing.’ So from our standpoint, it wasn’t as if they had more ability or talent than we had. We just had to come out and be as aggressive as we could.”

After playing with a big lineup for much of three quarters, Minnesota went small with newly acquired point guard Terrell Brandon and his backup Bobby Jackson on the the court at the same time. For a short while, the Timberwolves’ full-court pressing defense helped them cut into the Clipper lead but instead of folding, they responded with their own attack.

With Taylor and Rogers scoring six points each, the Clippers hung tough and won going away.

So after losing their first 17 games to begin the season and then losing five in a row after their first win, the Clippers can look ahead after ending a five-game trip impressively.

“I told everybody to enjoy the victory but this is how we have to play the rest of the way,” Ford said.